Secrets, Lies, and Love
by zombie hippie
Summary: Karate Kid fic. Daniel/Ali. After seven years, Daniel is a veteran of Desert Storm, while Ali is married to an abusive man. Daniel still loves her, but Ali is hiding a secret from him. What is it? Rated M.
1. Dreams and Nightmares

**Secrets, Lies, and Love**

Author's Notes: New story from the one and only Zombie Hippie. I'm going to try something a little bit different. Now, I know I usually do Pokemon or Resident Evil fanfics, but I've decided to branch out a little bit. Now, this is a Karate Kid fanfic. You see, one of my favorite movies of all time is 1984's classic, The Karate Kid, starring Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita, and Elisabeth Shue. And while I thought that the sequels were okay, I've decided to basically write a story of how I think a closure story for the Karate Kid series would go. Here's the setting. This is a Daniel/Ali story (since I thought that she should have always been Daniel's girl ever since I saw the first movie) and it takes place seven years after the events of the original movie. Now, as you remember, in The Karate Kid Part II, at the beginning, when Daniel comes to Mr. Miyagi's after his Senior Prom, saying that Ali had left him for a football player at UCLA. I've always thought that this was a huge stretch, seeing as how much Ali loved and cared for Daniel in the first one. Now, like I mentioned above, this story takes place seven years after the first movie in 1991. Daniel LaRusso, now twenty-five, is a former karate champion and veteran of Operation Desert Storm in Iraq after serving some time in the U.S. Army, when he meets up with Ali, now living with two things: an abusive husband, and a secret she has been keeping from Daniel for the seven years since they've seen each other. This is an M-rated story, for violence, graphic war flashbacks, strong language, sex, and mature themes in general, and is not a story for the faint of heart. You have been warned.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Karate Kid movie franchise. The franchise rightfully belongs to Columbia Pictures and its Sony Pictures Entertainment parent company.

Chapter 1

Dreams.

That's all that haunted Daniel LaRusso anymore. Dreams. Every time he got into bed at night, when he lay his head down on his pillow and went to sleep, he had nightmares that haunted him. And tonight, he was going to have another.

_Dream Sequence…_ (Dream sequences will be put in italics)

_Eight-year-old Daniel LaRusso stood next to his father's bed. His father had come down with pancreatic cancer, the deadliest of all cancers. The doctors had only given him a few months to live. Those few months were now up, and his father was dying a slow and painful death. It wasn't fair. His father had gotten his mother, Lucille, pregnant with Daniel when they were only seventeen and in their senior year at high school. He dropped out of school and joined the Marines, and served in Vietnam. He had seen loads of his fellow soldiers killed by the North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces. His father had been through hell. His father was very patriotic, loved America, but hated his government, and especially the last two presidents they had had. Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. Both had fucked him over, as Daniel used to hear him say. And now, he was dying, not from an AK-47 bullet fired from a Vietcong guerilla, but pancreatic cancer. _

_Lucille LaRusso was too torn up to say anything about it. She had loved Daniel's father, even after she had left her for 'Nam in 1966. They had married shortly before Daniel's birth on December 18__th__, 1966. Shortly after Daniel's birth, his father had left for Vietnam, where he had served for two years, before returning in 1968, when Daniel was two years old. They got together in a house, but never had much money, due to the state of the U.S. economy at the time. But Daniel was perfectly happy with what he had. All he needed was his family. He didn't need all the fancy toys that all the other kids wanted, nor did he want them. He would always remember that one time his mother took him to a shopping mall, needing to buy Daniel some new clothes, since he was outgrowing his old ones, and they had witnessed a boy about Daniel's age, throwing a temper tantrum because his mother wouldn't buy him the latest G.I. Joe action figure. Daniel's mother had pulled Daniel aside, and told him that if he ever did that, all he would get was a good spanking and a time-out when they got home. As a result, Daniel never threw a temper tantrum like that, for two reasons. One, he was afraid that his mother would make good on her threat, and two, he never wanted or needed what the other kids were throwing tantrums about. Sure, Daniel liked to play with toys like G.I. Joe and that kind of stuff, but he was perfectly fine with having his parents and a little bit of imagination. There was one time when he wanted to try skateboarding, knowing that his parents didn't have enough money for a real skateboard, so his father went out to the garage and built him one with a piece of strong plywood and some old roller skate wheels. That gave you a good description of what kind of boy he was growing up. _

_Daniel stood next to his father on his deathbed. "Daniel, son," he heard his father say. "Come here and hold daddy's hand." Daniel did so. He knew that time was almost up for his father, and that there was no need for words. He just stared at his father, and said, "I love you, daddy." His father responded with, "I love you too, son." The heartbeat monitor positioned on his father's bedside night table was showing his father's heart rate falling fast. Then, it let out a long shrill beep, and Daniel felt his father's hand go limp. "Good-bye, daddy." Daniel said, before bursting into tears._

_One week later, Daniel and his mother were at his father's burial ceremony. Some U.S. Marine Honor Guard members picked up and folded the American flag that was on his casket, while the rest of the Honor Guard fired the traditional three-round salute with their M1 Garand rifles. The Marines folding the flag came to Daniel and handed him the flag. The Marine who handed him the folded flag said, "I'm sorry to hear about your loss, son. Your father was a good man. He saved my life a few times when I was in Vietnam with him. You should be proud." The Marine gave a curt nod to Daniel, and walked off to join the rest of the Honor Guard. Daniel just stopped and looked at his father's grave. Engraved on the monument was the following:_

_Sergeant Andrew LaRusso_

_Served from 1966-1968 in Saigon, Vietnam._

_Born November 12__th__, 1949 in Seattle, Washington._

_Died January 5__th__, 1974 in Newark, New Jersey._

_Death is nothing but the next great adventure._

_Nine years later…_

_Daniel had just moved from New Jersey to California with his mother for her new job. It was the beach party, where he met Ali Mills, his first love. Ali had just kicked his soccer ball away, and he ran to go get it. That's when he heard the sound of dirtbikes approaching. He turned around and saw the boys who would come to bully him over the next two months, Johnny Lawrence and the Cobra Kai. It all played to him as clear as a movie on a theater screen. Johnny had just broken Ali's radio and Daniel had just been knocked to the ground by Johnny. Daniel and Johnny fought, and Daniel got his ass kicked._

_The dream then shifted to Daniel riding his bike home to the apartment complex that he and his mother lived at. He heard the familiar sound of the Cobra Kai's dirtbikes, and he was knocked off his bike and rolled down to the bottom of the hill, causing a nasty cut to appear on his forehead.  
_

_Another shift and Daniel was in the kitchen of Encino Oaks Country Club, where he saw Johnny dancing with Ali. Johnny saw him, shot him a nasty grin, and then kissed Ali hungrily as Daniel watched. Daniel, heartbroken, had accidentally backed into a waiter carrying a plate of spaghetti, and got spaghetti, meatballs, and tomato sauce all over his shirt._

_He was then at Mr. Miyagi's house, and saw him drunk off of whiskey. He then saw himself reading the newspaper from the 1940s, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the entrance of the United States into World War II, and how all Japanese-Americans were being interred an Manzanar internment camp, and how he read the letter informing Miyagi of his wife and unborn son's death due to complications at childbirth. He also saw the Medal of Honor that Miyagi had earned while serving with the 442__nd__ Infantry Regiment, for his heroism against German forces in Europe. _

_It was his eighteenth birthday, and Daniel had just gotten a car for his second birthday present from Mr. Miyagi, and had driven to the Golf N' Stuff, where he saw Ali again. After realizing his mistake, he confronted Ali, and, in the parking lot, just in front of the water slide that he and Ali were supposed to try, Daniel and Ali shared their first kiss together, a very warm, passionate kiss. Daniel thought that Ali's lips tasted like very sweet wild cherries, and it was a very tender moment._

_He had just won the All-Valley Under 18 Karate Tournament, and he had seen Kreese defeated in a small karate spar in the parking lot by Mr. Miyagi._

_He then stood in front of his wrecked car, which Ali had accidentally wrecked, and Ali informed him that she had fallen in love with a football player from UCLA. This was on the night of their Senior Prom. Daniel was heartbroken, as he thought Ali truly loved him. He broke down and cried after she was out of sight. Then, he went back to Miyagi's, pretending to be angry. _

_He was then in Okinawa with Mr. Miyagi, and he had just kissed Kumiko for the first time, and he had rescued that little girl from the typhoon. He then was at the old castle in Okinawa, when he saw that Kumiko was about to be murdered by Chozen, nephew of Miyagi's best friend, Sato. Daniel was able to defeat Chozen, and save Kumiko._

_He then found himself getting off the plane at Los Angeles International Airport back in California. Kumiko stayed behind, as she had gotten a deal with a dance studio in Tokyo, Japan. That's when he and Mr. Miyagi used Daniel's college money to open a bonsai tree store, and Daniel met Jessica Andrews, a cute girl from the pottery store across the street. He then remembers being harassed by Mike Barnes, and being deceived by Terry Silver, with Mr. Kreese, whom Daniel thought was dead due to a lie that Silver told him. He saw Barnes breaking off the branch from the original bonsai tree that Mr. Miyagi had brought with him when he first came to the United States from Okinawa. After helping Mr. Miyagi replant the tree, Daniel then defeated Mike Barnes in order to get Barnes, Silver, and Kreese to stop harassing him. He also remembered Jessica leaving California for Columbus, Ohio._

_Five years later, having joined the Army shortly after the events with Barnes, Silver, and Kreese, Daniel found himself going to Iraq to help out in Operation Desert Storm. He wanted to help stop Saddam Hussein from expanding his forces into Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. _

_He was in the middle of a firefight. Daniel kept firing his M-16 at as many Iraqi soldiers he could shoot, killing as many as he could. But, he looked around, seeing his brothers in arms being shot and killed all around him. All just to destroy some SCUD missile sites._

_End Dream Sequence…_

Daniel awoke with a start, sweat running down his forehead. He had been having this same flashback nightmare ever since he got home from Iraq. Ever since he found out that Iraq had been subdued, but Saddam Hussein was still in power, Daniel had nothing but contempt for his government and President George Herbert Walker Bush.

He looked over at his alarm clock. The red digital numbers showed that it was just a little bit after three in the morning. He stretched and got up. He went into the kitchen and opened up his refrigerator. He found what he was looking for pretty quick. He pulled out a bottle of beer and took out the bottle opener. He then took a long swig and let the bitter tasting liquid roll over his tongue and down his throat. He found himself needing a bottle of beer whenever he had that recurring nightmare.

Daniel had drunk about half of his beer when he heard footsteps. Daniel quickly opened the door to the closet next to the kitchen entrance and pulled out the .357 Magnum revolver that he kept in his house for protection. He opened the chamber, saw all six bullets inside, and cocked back the hammer and took aim.

"Daniel-san." He heard a voice say. "Don't you remember that Miyagi is living with you now?"

The figure stepped out from the shadows and into the light of the kitchen. Daniel gasped and almost dropped his gun.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Miyagi." He said. "It's just that ever since I got back from Baghdad, I've been very jumpy."

Mr. Miyagi smiled. "Miyagi understand," he said. "Miyagi was same way for a while after he got back from Berlin."

Daniel sighed and put the gun back it the closet. He also kept another .357 Magnum revolver in the glove compartment of his car. The same car that Mr. Miyagi had given him for his birthday seven years earlier. Ever since Mr. Miyagi had to close down his bonsai tree store since he was getting to old to run it, and after training another student, some girl named Julie Pierce; Mr. Miyagi had been living with Daniel in his house. Mr. Miyagi was getting old, and needed someone to help take care of him. Daniel didn't want to see his good friend/former karate sensei to have to live in a retirement home, so Daniel was more than happy to take him in.

"So, Daniel-san." Mr. Miyagi said. "I know you had date earlier. How did it go?"

"Oh, you mean with that military psychiatrist that kept hitting on me?" Daniel said. "It turned out that she was trying to use me to get some big promotion at work, and that I was nothing more than a pawn to her. She wanted someone who had fought in both a personal and war environment. And since I won two karate championships in a row, as well with that fight with Chozen back in Okinawa, and what I went through in Baghdad as well, she thought that a detailed report of me would be sure to secure her that promotion she wanted. Well, it did, we stopped talking. All I can say is, "Good riddance to that bitch."

"What about that one girl who you had when you first move here?" Mr. Miyagi asked.

"Are you going senile, Mr. Miyagi?" Daniel said. "That's been over for years. I told you, Ali told me that she fell in love with some football player from UCLA and she left me for him. I mean, I still love her and all, but I had to accept a long time ago that it wasn't meant to be. Besides, I'm sure she's happy, wherever she is."

"Miyagi know that first true love never truly die." Mr. Miyagi said. "If love was true between two people, then meant to be it is."

Daniel sighed. "Mr. Miyagi," he said, trying to keep the annoyance and coolness out of his voice. "I'm tired, and I need to get back to bed. Its early Saturday morning right now, and I just want to sleep. I don't have to work again until Monday, so I would just like to go get some sleep." He then finished his beer and made his way to his bedroom.

"Good night, Daniel-san." Mr. Miyagi said.

"Good night, Mr. Miyagi." Daniel responded.

Daniel went back into his room, laid down on his bed, and fell asleep again almost immediately. He still remembered what he said to Mr. Miyagi about Ali. Yeah, he still loved her. He didn't think he would ever stop truly loving her. But he was sure that Ali was happy, wherever she was.

How very wrong he was.

End of Chapter 1

Author's Notes: Well, that's the end of my first chapter of this. If you're interested in seeing more, then I want at least three reviews, signed or unsigned. I'm also currently working on Chapter 2 for The Covenant's Revenge, since I'm on Christmas Break right now.

Until next time.

Zombie Hippie. 


	2. The White Door

**Secrets, Lies, and Love**

Author's Notes: We're now on Chapter 2. Hope everyone had a good Christmas yesterday. I got a Playstation 3 and some games. Not a bad haul. At least it was better than last year. And now that I've just showered a little while ago, and feel a lot better because of it after waking up, it's time to get to work.

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1 for disclaimer.

2nd Disclaimer: All right, I've never done this before, but I thought I should give you a fair warning as to what this chapter contains. This chapter will contain my first attempt to write an explicit sex scene, or as it's known in the fic lingo, a lemon. However, it shouldn't be much worse than what you see in your average R-rated movie or even some PG-13-rated movies (such as the sex scene in The Terminator, coincidentally also released in 1984, the year that The Karate Kid was released) however, so I'm issuing two different types of warnings. First warning: If that kind of stuff offends or disgusts you, then skip that scene. Second warning: If you don't want to read, at least in my own opinion, a horribly-written sex scene, (since I'm still a virgin, sad I know XD!) then skip the scene. To sum it all up: Read that scene at your own risk! I will accept no responsibility for any bad images or nightmares it may cause! This chapter will also contain some scenes ripped right from the movie, as well as some original scenes of my own written from Ali's point of view.

3rd Disclaimer: One more warning of a different nature, this is going to be a LONG CHAPTER! It should make up for the time you had to wait. Think of it as my way of apologizing to you subscribers for the long wait.

Chapter 2

Daniel woke up the following Monday at four in the morning to his alarm. He had three hours before he had to be at work at his job at the Army base. He worked in the Armory, and helped train new recruits in how to use and maintain weapons. He wished he had a desk job, he had seen enough guns to last him a lifetime when he was in Desert Storm. But, that's where the Army had assigned him, and it's how he earned money, so he couldn't really complain. At least he had a couple of good buddies who worked in the Armory with him. And the Army gave him good benefits too. And the pay was just what he needed to survive. Hell, he had enough money to get married right now and start a family if he wanted too. He had been trying, but no luck with women so far.

After a shower and a quick shave, Daniel put on his uniform. He looked in the mirror as he brushed his teeth. The nametag Sergeant D. LaRusso hung over his left breast pocket. He spat out the last of his toothpaste, rinsed his mouth with Listerine mouthwash, and went back into his master bedroom. Inside was a King-sized bed, a TV, a computer (for work use mostly) a VCR, a Super Nintendo, (for when he was bored) a bookshelf with all sorts of different books, an eight-track tape deck, and on his wall, just above his bed, he saw a picture frame with his medals he earned while in Desert Storm, a Medal of Honor and a Purple Heart. (_"Oh, yeah," he would always think sarcastically. "To remind me when some Iraqi bastard managed to shoot me in the leg with his AK-47. As if the scar just above my right knee from the bullet wasn't enough."_)

He went downstairs to the living room, where he saw Mr. Miyagi asleep on the foldout bed. Daniel smiled. He knew that Mr. Miyagi would wake up sometime later, turn on the TV and do nothing but watch Wheel of Fortune, The Price is Right, and Jeopardy. Mr. Miyagi was actually getting pretty good at those game shows, too. He watched his old friend sleep for a little while longer, before going downstairs, going out the front door, crossing the driveway, getting in his car, and driving off.

He drove for a little while before reaching the security checkpoint at the base. He flashed his official Army ID card to the MP (Military Police) officer and drove on when the security gate was raised. He found his assigned parking space next to the Armory, and went inside the base.

He walked through the hallway on his way to the Armory, when he stopped at a Coca-Cola vending machine. He dug into his pocket for some change, paid the appropriate amount, and bought a small 1-liter bottle of Coke. He always drank Coke if he was in need of a caffeine boost to wake him up. He didn't care for coffee. He had hated the taste of coffee ever since he tried a sip of his mother's when he was six. He never had a cup in his life. He took the bottle out of the vending machine when it dropped down, opened it slowly, took a sip, and closed it, to save the rest of it for later.

Daniel walked into the Armory, where his two good armory buddies were already working. Private Patrick Peden, a soldier who was originally from Washington State, where Daniel's father was originally from, and none other than Corporal Jonathon "Johnny" Lawrence, formally of the Cobra Kai. Daniel and Johnny had become good friends and buried the hatchet ever since that incident in the parking lot after the Karate tournament between Miyagi and Kreese.

Johnny looked up and saw Daniel coming at him. "Hey, Sarge LaRusso," he said. "The General was just here a few minutes ago. He wants us to try out some new assault rifles that were just delivered to the base. It's apparently going to replace the M-16 as our official weapon sometime within the next six years. It's called the M4."

Daniel scoffed a little bit. "I don't know, Johnny." He said. "The M-16 was pretty reliable to me in Baghdad. It saved my life more than a few times."

"Oh, yeah, I remember that," Johnny said with a laugh. "I remember when I was on a combat mission with you, and your M-16 jammed on you in the middle of a firefight, so you took some dead Iraqi fucker's AK-47 and used it to gun down the rest of 'em. Absolutely reliable, my ass."

"Try saying that to my dead father," Daniel fired back. "When he was in Vietnam, he told me that the North Vietnamese and Vietcong's AK-47s always jammed on them, while his M-16 never let him down. Hell, he was even able to use an ordinary M1 Garand in order to take down many North Vietnamese and Vietcong."

"Whatever, Sarge LaRusso, but General's orders. Get to the firing range and test the new M4s, and then send a detailed report to him. He wants that report on his desk by lunchtime." Johnny said quickly.

Daniel sighed and reluctantly followed him and Private Peden to the firing range, where he saw the M4s already on a table, with no magazine inside. Instead, the magazine was set right next to the rifle, and already loaded with ammunition. Taking the empty M4 and the magazine, Daniel went to firing station 1 and got ready. He slapped the magazine into the rifle, and cocked back the firing pin, and heard the telltale click of a round being loaded into the chamber.

Private Peden pressed a switch, and a few targets popped up. They were all pictures of a stereotypical terrorist, in combat fatigues and a ski mask over their face. Daniel took aim, turned the safety off, and held his breath. He aimed at the faux terrorist nearest to him, and pulled the trigger. A three-round burst fired from the muzzle, and the faux terrorist went down.

"Nice." Johnny said. "I can see what the General meant." He took out a pen and started to write information about the M4 onto the blank weapons report form that he had on the clipboard he was holding.

Private Peden handed Daniel another rifle. "This is the A1 variant." He explained. "The General wants you to try firing fully automatic instead of three-round, in order to test the recoil of the rifle."

Daniel nodded, took the rifle, and slapped the clip in, and got the weapon set up to fire. Whilst he was doing this, he heard Johnny ask, "So, how was your date with Tiffany last Friday, Sarge?"

"Ended in disaster, Corporal." Daniel responded. He took aim, turned the safety off, and held his breath.

"Yeah, well, you'll get someone. You were a better ladies' man than I ever was, Sarge." Johnny said. "You even managed to steal Ali away from me in high school."

At the mention of the name Ali, Daniel, taken by surprise, slammed his finger down on the trigger, while a spew of thirty rounds came out, and emptied the clip within ten seconds. Instead of hitting any targets, the bullets instead hit the lights that were keeping the shooting range lit, destroying them.

"I'll call the repair guy." Private Peden said, leaving the room to get to a phone.

Daniel sighed. "You know that that relationship is ancient history, right Johnny?" he asked.

"I know." Johnny said. "I just wonder why she left you in the first place."

"She left me for some football player at UCLA." Daniel replied, getting more and more annoyed with each passing second.

"Oh." Johnny said. "Well, what do you think? Do you think it was really meant to be, Sarge?"

Daniel just about had all he could take from the subject of Ali. "No more stupid questions today, Corporal." He said to Johnny. "That's an order."

"Yes, sir." Johnny said. He knew that Daniel had a gun. Johnny had once pissed off a Drill Sergeant so much to the point that he pulled his sidearm on Johnny. Sure, the Drill Sergeant was kicked out of the Army for doing that, but Johnny wasn't about to let something like that happen to him again.

Daniel reloaded the M4 and took aim at the nearest target again. He held his breath, and, for a split second, he could've sworn he saw a picture of Ali's beautiful face appear on the target he was aiming at. Daniel blinked his eyes, and the target looked just like an ordinary target again. Daniel fired, and the target went down.

_Four hours later…,_

It was lunchtime, and Daniel had his lunch hour free to leave the base and go get something to eat. That's what he decided to do, for two reasons. One, he was getting hungry, and thought that he would go get something from the nearby McDonalds, and two, after his little discussion with Johnny about Ali, Daniel felt that he needed a temporary change in scenery, at least for his lunch hour.

Daniel walked out to the base parking lot and opened the door to his car. He climbed into the driver's seat and closed the door. He reached over and opened the glove compartment for his car to get his Army ID card out. When he grabbed his ID card, he noticed something fall out of his glove compartment and onto the floor of his car, just beneath the passenger's seat. He reached over to see what it was. In his hand, was something he just did not want to see at that moment, not now when he was trying to clear his head of the subject. He was holding a picture, and he saw a younger version of himself, sitting next to none other than Ali Mills, his first love. It was the same picture that they had taken together seven years ago, in the photo booth at the Golf n' Stuff family fun center. Daniel just looked at the picture, and felt tears begin to well up in his eyes. He threw the picture back into the glove compartment, slammed it shut, impatiently wiped the tears from his eyes, and began to drive away. He was on his way to the McDonalds, not knowing what would be waiting for him there.

_Earlier, at a different location…,_

A strong male hand met its mark. A loud smacking sound was heard as a young woman with medium-length blonde hair fell to the floor, with a huge red hand imprint on her beautiful face, although somewhat broken and misused. She cried out in pain.

"YOU LITTLE BITCH!" a loud male voice yelled. "NOT ONLY DO YOU FUCK UP BREAKFAST AGAIN, BUT YOU ALSO HAVE THE NERVE TO GO OUT BEHIND MY BACK AND CHEAT ON ME BEHIND MY BACK!"

Ali Mills, now Ali Johnson, got up and rubbed her cheek where her husband had hit her. "Ben," she pleaded. "I swear, I just went to the store to buy some more groceries, met up with Susan and got tied up. It was an accident."

"Yeah, right." Ben said. "And you think I would believe that. I'm going to take a long nap, I'm tired from working the eight-hour shift that puts food on our table. You clean up all that shit in the kitchen and have dinner ready when I wake up." He then grabbed a bottle of vodka and went into his bedroom.

Ali just sat there and let out a few sobs. _"How did I let my life get like this?"_ she thought to herself.

_Flashback…_(yes, flashbacks will also be in italics! Fear my awesome italic power! LOL! I'll shut up now.)

_Ali's POV_

_I had just broken up with Johnny at the end of junior year. He had been trying to talk to me, and I kept telling him that I wasn't interested. It was now the day before the first day of school, senior year. I had just met an unknown, but cute boy. He was tanned skin, and had jet-black hair. He must have been of Italian descent. Well, you know what they say about Italian boys, they're supposed to be among the cutest of boys. I kept looking over at him. His Hispanic friend kicked a soccer ball over at me and my friends. One of my friends handed the ball to me. I walked over to him._

"_Hey, did you lose something?" I asked him._

_He flashed me a cute smile. "Hey, I hope we're not bothering you."_

_I smiled at him. "Hey, how do you, um," I said, trying to remember the correct term for it. "juggle?" I completed the question. _

"_Oh, it's pretty easy," he said. "I usually just start at one." He juggled once. "After that I try two." He juggled twice. He then passed the ball to me. "Then three, then four, and so on." I decided to try myself, and found out that I was pretty good at it myself. I was succeeding. I smiled, proud of my own accomplishment, and I immediately began to take an even bigger liking to this new boy whom I've never met before._

_We played for a little while longer, and then I heard something that I definitely did not want to hear. The telltale sound of dirtbikes. My ex-boyfriend, Johnny Lawrence, and the rest of his Cobra Kai buddies' bikes. I kicked the soccer ball away from where we were, while this new boy ran to go get it._

_I sat down on the beach, trying to keep myself from losing my patience._

"_Hey Ali." Johnny said. "I want to talk to you."_

"_Just leave me alone." I said to him. "We've been over this already, I don't want to talk. Why don't you just take your little Cobra Kais and get out of here?"_

"_Well, I want to talk to you!" He said, getting angry. He grabbed my radio._

"_Give me my radio!" I said, getting up. He wouldn't give it back, instead dodging my attempt to grab it back from him. "I said give me my radio!"_

"_Do you promise you'll talk to me?" Johnny asked._

"_Yes." I said, lying to him. "Yes, just give me back my radio."_

_Johnny gave me back my radio. In defiance to him, I turned it back on. He grabbed it out of my hands and threw it to the ground, hard, breaking it in spite of the soft sand on the beach._

"_Did you just break my radio?!" I yelled at Johnny, pushing him._

"_Yeah, I did!" he yelled back at me._

_Just then, the boy I just met wandered back to me, and picked up the broken radio to hand to me. "Here you go." He said._

"_Don't touch it, punk!" Johnny yelled back at him._

_I turned to the boy. "No, it's fine." I said. "Let him have it."_

_Johnny took the radio from the boy. "What, are you deaf?" He asked the boy._

"_Hey, man, what's up?" the boy said, trying to make nice with Johnny._

"_What, you want it?" Johnny said to the boy, indicating the radio in his hands._

"_Yeah, sure, man." The boy said, holding out his hands to take it so he could give it back to me._

_Johnny threw the radio to the boy, knocking him down. His Cobra Kai friends held me back, to stop me from helping the boy._

_The boy gently set my broken radio to the side and rushed at Johnny. Johnny held out his foot and tripped the boy._

"_Johnny, stop it!" I yelled at him._

_The boy rushed at Johnny again, and got tripped again. The boy didn't quit, though, but Johnny delivered a harsh kick to him in his stomach. The boy doubled up, coughing, the wind knocked out of him._

_Johnny walked over to where the boy was laying, gloating at him, but the boy jumped up and punched Johnny in the nose, which started to bleed._

"_Alright, man." The boy said, holding out his hand for Johnny to shake. "We're even, right?"_

_But Johnny looked at the boy with a dangerous look on his face. "No mercy, man!" he said, as he kicked the boy in the face, gave him a right hook, and then backhanded his face, knocking him back down._

_I got angry. I launched myself at Johnny, yelling at him to hit me, saying it was his fault, trying my best to hurt him, saying all the nastiest stuff I could to him. I had never liked Johnny in the first place, at least not in the way he liked me. I only went out with him because my dad was trying to make a business deal with his dad, a la the kings and emperors of civilizations past making arranged marriage pacts in order to forge alliances for times of battle. But it just didn't seem me. My parents didn't even believe me when I told them that Johnny had gone too far one time, and had almost raped me, almost forcibly took my virginity, the precious thing that I was trying to save for the boy or man I would meet someday and fall in love with. I had never been in love before, a few crushes, but never in true love before. Instead, my parents accused me of lying to them, and grounded me for a week. I broke up with Johnny the day after I got grounded._

_Johnny and his Cobra Kai friends got back on their bikes and left. I went over to the boy, who was lying on his stomach, spitting out sand._

"_Hey, are you okay?" I asked him. _

"_I'm just fine, now leave me alone." The boy said. _

"_Well, I wanna help." I said to him._

"_Look, just leave me alone, I'm okay." He said._

_I felt my friend Barbara put her hand on my shoulder. "Come on, Ali, let's go." She said. "It's better if you leave him alone."_

_I reluctantly left, continuing to watch the boy as he continued to spit out sand. Johnny came back on his motorcycle and used the spinning of the back wheel to kick more sand in the boy's face for good measure. I felt bad for this new boy I had just met._

_I got home a half an hour later, and went upstairs to get ready for bed. It was the first day of senior year tomorrow. However, my mind was not on the first day of my last year of required school tomorrow. Instead, it was on the boy that I had met on the beach that night, who had been beaten up by Johnny. I hoped and prayed to God that night that I would see that boy again, to see if he was okay, thank him for trying to stand up to Johnny like that, and apologize to him about getting beat up._

_The next morning, I got up out of bed and prepared for my first day of senior year. I was hoping that that boy whom I had met on the beach the night before would be still going to school himself, and that he would be going to the same school as me, so I would be able to apologize to him and talk to him._

_I hitched a ride with my old friend Eddie, a boy who I had once dated, but turned out we were better friends than boyfriend and girlfriend, and he was more like a big brother to me, and I was more like a little sister to him. I was an only child myself, had no other siblings, and I always looked at Barbara and Susan as my two sisters, and Eddie as the big brother I never had. Along the way to school, I had asked him for advice on what to do, seeing as I had started to have a small crush on the boy I had met at the beach the previous night, how he had to be new to the area, as I had never seen him before, and what I should say to him._

"_Well, Ali," Eddie said, veering a little bit to avoid some idiot that tried to run a red light, "All's I can say is to talk to him, say that you're sorry, that is, if you ever see him again, and just get to know him. If I were you, I wouldn't try dating him until you were absolutely sure that you wanted to. I mean, you effectively have a crush on a boy you just met last night, and you don't even know what his name is, and were he's originally from."_

_I digested that. What Eddie said was true. But I knew one thing for sure, there was something very special about that boy I had met the night before, something I couldn't quite put my finger on. But I knew it was there, and he was different, that's for sure. He was also cute, at least in my opinion, anyway. _

_When Eddie and I got to school, I saw the boy I had met the night before on the beach, going to the main office to get his class list. I tried to get his attention, but unfortunately, there were too many people crowding the main office, and there was too much noise. I hoped and prayed to myself that I would at least get another chance to talk to him sometime that day._

_After school, I went to join the cheerleading squad on the soccer field. I hoped that this was where I would meet the boy again, since I saw him with a soccer ball playing soccer with some guys the night before. Surely enough, that's where he was there, trying out for the school soccer team._

_I saw him getting teased by the guys he had been at the beach at the previous night, calling him "the karate kid" and other things along those lines. As soon as the group left, I picked up a nearby soccer ball, said, "Hey, think fast." And he turned around, and I threw the ball to him, and he caught it. I got a good look at him, and noticed that he had a black eye._

"_Hey." He said. I said hey back._

"_How's it going?" he asked me, as if he were trying to start a casual conversation._

_I looked at his black eye and winced. "Ooh, your eye." I said._

"_Oh, don't worry about it," the boy said. "It looks worse than it feels, believe me. I'm just sorry about your radio."_

_I looked down at the ground sheepishly. "Yeah, well, I'm more sorry about your eye." I said, mentally kicking myself for not saying sorrier instead, knowing that had my English teacher been there, she would have embarrassed me by correcting me. _(Author's note: I'm typing this document up on Microsoft Word and the damn spell check kept trying to correct me about saying more sorry instead of sorrier. Spell check, the Adolf Hitler of the spelling and grammar Nazis, LOL!) _"You should have let him keep it." I said, about my now broken radio. I wasn't mad about my broken radio anymore, I lived in a wealthy family, I could easily go out and buy another one._

"_Well, why?" he asked. "It wasn't his, was it?"_

_I digested that, and then said, "Yeah, it wasn't his."_

_He flashed me another cute smile, which caused my heart to melt a little bit. "See, we think alike already!" he exclaimed._

_I reached over and took the soccer ball out of his hands. "You know what else we do alike?" I asked him, before beginning to juggle the ball with my knees._

"_Hey!" he exclaimed. "You've been practicing!"_

_I giggled, before I heard the captain of the cheerleading squad call for the rest of us to line up to practice our routines. I was offered the position of cheerleading captain myself last year after our previous captain graduated, but I turned it down, since I didn't think I would be able to do the job justice._

_I began to walk away to rejoin the squad, when the boy called out to me again. "Hey, you got a name?" he asked._

"_Ali, with an "I." I answered him. New people I met before had sometimes tried to spell my name A-L-L-Y instead of A-L-I. That pissed me off to no end, it was the name that my parents gave me and it was displayed proudly on my birth certificate._

_I mentally kicked myself for almost forgetting to ask him what his name was. "Hey, what's you name?" I asked him._

"_Daniel." He said. "With an "L." he added, playfully repeating my little informative joke._

_I giggled. "I'll see you around." I responded to him, and rejoined the squad. We performed one of our more difficult routines, but managed to pull it all off without a hitch._

_Pretty soon, I heard a commotion coming from the soccer field. I looked over and saw that Daniel had gotten into a physical altercation with Bobby Brown, one of Johnny's Cobra Kai friends. After the coach broke the altercation up, I heard him and Daniel get into a verbal altercation, with the coach kicking Daniel out of the tryouts and Daniel saying that the school sucked. I watched him storm off in a mad huff. I looked after him, worried about him._

_I hitched another ride with Eddie after cheerleading practice was over. I informed him of the incident on the soccer field, and that I had learned that the boy's name was Daniel, and how I found it slightly disturbing that the rest of the cheerleading squad hadn't paid any attention to the incident._

"_Well, Ali," Eddie said, once again swerving to avoid yet another idiot disobeying very basic traffic laws. "At least you were able to talk to him, and you may get more chances to socialize with him later. Just play it by ear, and see what happens."_

_He dropped me off at my house. I had a driver's license myself, but I didn't really care for driving, so I usually just hitched rides from Eddie. I walked into the house that me and my parent's had lived in for the last seventeen, almost eighteen years of my life come that following April. I would never willingly tell my parents about Daniel, as much as I loved my parents, but they judged people based on how much money or material possessions they had. That was their only fatal flaw, in my opinion. I didn't mind being rich, but it wasn't all that. I remember talking with some middle or lower-class people, and them telling me that they would give almost anything to be in my shoes, but then I would try to convince them that being rich wasn't all that. But they would never believe me. And sometimes I caught myself wishing that I could live in a middle or lower class home. I remember when I first read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, and how Charlie Bucket, even though he and his family were poor, Charlie had a family that loved him for who he was, and that they didn't need all that fancy stuff that most of the rich people had, just as long as they had each other. My parents, on the other hand, were a lot like Mr. and Mrs. Salt from that book, the parents of Veruca Salt, the spoiled selfish little brat child who always wanted everything now, who ended up being considered a "bad nut" by Willy Wonka's nut-testing squirrels and thrown down the garbage chute. The only difference between my family and the fictional Salt family was that I never once in my life acted like Veruca Salt, a spoiled, selfish little brat. I always despised that kind of rich kid, and I had read that book at a young age, having been able to read at the third grade level ever since I was in Kindergarten, and having my reading abilities grow and expand throughout those years ever since, and that's when I learned about the evils of greed and selfishness, and I promised myself that I would never fall into that trap myself._

(Author's Note: Yeah, sorry, got a little carried away with the above paragraph. Also, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is one of my favorite books of all time. Also the original movie starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka is one of my other favorite films of all time. Screw the Tim Burton remake, though, the only Tim Burton films I've ever liked were Batman, Batman Returns, The Nightmare Before Christmas (yes, I know it was only produced by him, but it has his trademark style in it, so it may as well be considered his movie) Mars Attacks and Big Fish. Yeah, off-track a little bit, I'll shut up again.)

_I knew that I wanted to see that Daniel boy again. My crush on him had grown a little bit. The next day, I was standing in the lunch line at school with Susan, who apparently had a class with Daniel, and she pointed him out to me, who was getting his own lunch. I ran over to him, luckily not getting shouted at by the person that I probably cut in front of the line._

"_Hi." I said._

"_Hey," he said, "Ali with an "I." He looked down at my tray. "Not to hungry today, are you?" he asked me._

"_Eh, no, not really." I replied. _

_Daniel picked out a blackberry pie from the dessert tray. "Here," he said. "Have some pie, made it myself." He joked to me. It was a really cute joke, so I couldn't help but giggle at it._

"_So," he said, "are you sitting with anybody?" he asked me._

"_Well, you, if it's okay." I answered him truthfully._

"_It's fine with me." Daniel said. "Want some milk?" he asked, setting a carton of milk down on my tray._

"_Anyway," I said. "I'm sorry about the soccer tryouts."_

"_Yeah, well, those are the breaks." He responded._

"_Yeah, well you know that guy you had trouble with on the beach?" I asked him._

"_Oh, you mean King Karate?" he asked._

"_Yeah, he's my ex-boyfriend." I said to him truthfully._

"_Oh, really." He said. Daniel then started to act very strange, apparently talking to some invisible person, saying that that invisible person was right._

"_What are you doing?" I asked him, extremely confused._

"_Oh," he said. "It's just this little voice in my head, and it's telling me that I must be some kind of whacko for talking to you."_

_We got to the cashier. "$2.50." she told Daniel. _

"_Oh no," Daniel said to the lunch lady. He pointed to me. "For both."_

_The lunch lady typed in some adjustments into her register. "$3.75." she announced the new total of both my and his lunches._

"_$3.75." Daniel said, paying the lunch lady, and the lunch lady handed him back some change. I was stunned. I had almost wanted to reach into my own pocket to pay for my own, but too late, Daniel's kind deed had been done. I had to remember to pay him back for his kindness. _

"_Yeah, well," I said, as we walked into the lunch room to find a table to sit at. "You don't have to worry about that anymore. It's been over for a while."_

"_Over? For how long?" Daniel asked me._

"_Weeks." I said happily. _

"_Weeks?" I heard him ask. "One week, five weeks, how many weeks is weeks?"_

_Daniel and I spent the rest of the lunch period eating and talking to each other. Daniel had a very sweet sense of humor. I had honestly never met anyone like him before. My crush was deepening even more. _

_The day after that, after school, I was walking with my friends Barbara and Susan, talking with them. That's when I felt someone tap me on my shoulder. I turned around and saw the smiling face of the boy who had been on my mind for the past few days._

"_Hey." I said to him. I then noticed his forehead. "Hey, what happened to your forehead?" I asked him._

"_Oh, it was terrible." He said. "It was this gigantic, run-away zit, just…" he pointed all over his forehead and made a raspberry noise with his tongue. _

_I giggled, while Susan said. "That's gross."_

"_Daniel," I said, pointing to Susan. "This is Susan."_

"_Charmed." Susan said, uninterested._

"_No," I said to Daniel, regarding his forehead. "What really happened?"_

"_Oh," Daniel said. "I had a bike accident."_

"_Oh really." I said, feeling sorry for him._

"_Oh yeah?" Susan asked, suddenly interested. "What kind of bike do you have, Daniel? Honda? Suzuki? What?"_

"_No, it's actually more of a Miyagi Turbo, actually." He said._

"_Well, we're going to the arcade." I said. "Want to come?" I asked, inviting him._

"_Oh, sure." He said. _

"_They have this new game I want to show you." I said._

_Everything seemed to be going all right, until Daniel saw something that spooked him. I looked to see what it was, and saw none other than Mr. Johnny Lawrence and his Cobra Kais. _

_Daniel began to run away, saying something about having to get something done. I just had to protest. "Look, we need to deal with this!" I called out to him._

"_You deal with things your way, I'll deal with them my own way!" he responded to me._

"_Daniel!" I said, furthering my protest._

"_Hey, get off my case!" he yelled back at me._

_I sighed disgustedly and turned to Susan, who simply shrugged her shoulders, clearly saying with her bodily gesture that she didn't know what to tell me._

_I went home instead of the arcade that day. I just wasn't in the mood anymore after that incident with Daniel. I went up to my room, where I lay on my bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about what had just happened a little bit over an hour ago. I sighed, and thought that maybe I was wrong. Maybe I should talk to him. Maybe I should apologize. I was wrong to try to force Daniel to deal with it. I needed to speak to him, just to apologize. _

_However, I didn't see Daniel that much over the next six weeks after that incident. Only thing I knew was that he was probably trying to avoid me._

_It was that night at the annual Halloween dance. I was dressed as an Ice Princess, whilst Susan dressed as the Bride of Frankenstein's Monster, or at least that we she claimed to be dressed as, but I didn't see it, and Barbara was dressed as The Penguin from that old Batman TV Show that played a lot when I was a kid._

(Author's Note: Okay, so I just made those three costumes up, but it's not like they were ever properly identified in the movie, I just called them based on what I thought they were, and I thought that Ali looked like she was dressed as an Ice Princess, and I thought that Susan was trying to look like some sort of purple version of the Bride of Frankenstein's Monster, and that Barbara was trying to be the Burgess Meredith version of The Penguin in the Batman TV show, which is an interesting connection, because Burgess Meredith, who played The Penguin on the 1960's Batman TV show also played Mickey in the first five Rocky movies, and both Rocky and Rocky V were directed by filmmaker John G. Avildsen, who also directed The Karate Kid Trilogy. Back on track =D)

_I was just hanging around with Susan and Barbara, when I saw something that just made my mind click. A walking shower. It must have been Daniel._

"_Hey, there's Daniel!" I exclaimed. _

"_Where?" Susan asked._

"_The shower." I replied, giggling._

"_How do you know?" Barbara asked me._

"_I just know." I assured her. "May I borrow this?" I asked, taking the fake flower that Barbara was holding with her._

_As I walked toward Daniel, I heard Barbara and Susan converse with each other, saying that they didn't know what I saw in Daniel, and something about being into fungus. I didn't know what they meant by that, but at the same time, I didn't care._

_I walked over, and thrust the fake flower through the fake shower curtain, hoping that I was right, but at the same time, knowing I was right._

"_Help me! Help me!" I said, jokingly. "My flower needs water!"_

_The shower curtain opened, and sure enough, there was Daniel, the boy I had been looking for over the past few weeks._

"_Hey, you've come to the right place, stranger." Daniel said, giving me that cute smile that I really liked._

"_Yeah," I said, getting into Daniel's shower costume, "I never danced in the shower before."_

"_Yeah, a friend of mine made this for me." Daniel said._

_I giggled, just loving his sense of humor more and more every time I heard it._

"_So," I said, changing the subject. "Where have you been hiding?"_

"_Well, I haven't been hiding!" Daniel said to me._

"_Well," I said, pushing the subject further, "I haven't seen you around."_

"_You've been looking?" Daniel asked me._

_I cocked my head. "Sort of." I admitted._

"_Sort of?" Daniel asked, playfully mimicking me._

"_Well, I thought that maybe you were still angry with me." I said truthfully._

"_Why?" Daniel asked me._

"_Well," I said, apologetically. "Because of what I said to you the last time I saw you."_

"_Oh, no, no." Daniel said. "I've been thinking a lot about that…" _

"_Yeah, I know," I said, cutting him off. "But I really should learn to mind my own business."_

"_No, I think you're right about facing things head on." Daniel said. "I feel the same way." He smiled and put his hands on my shoulders. "Just kind of forgot for a while. Thanks for reminding me."_

"_You're welcome." I said, giggling again. God, I felt like such an idiot right then and there._

_Daniel and I slowly began to embrace and dance again. "It's just that he thinks he can do whatever he wants to people." I said._

"_Who?" Daniel asked._

"_Johnny." I said with disgust. Daniel kind of chuckled with agreement._

"_I would love to see him get a dose of his own medicine." I said._

"_Well," Daniel said happily. "What goes around comes around."_

"_Yeah, I'd love to be there when it does." I said, my hatred for Johnny taking over._

_Daniel chuckled again. "Yeah, me too."_

_Daniel and I embraced and danced again. I didn't know what love felt like, at the time, that is, but I thought I was pretty damn close to it. And I hoped I was in love, but at the same time, I didn't. I mean, what if he didn't feel the same way? I had seen other people, both boys and girls, heartbroken, and I wasn't sure if I could deal with heartbreak. I didn't know if I was strong enough. Or worse, what if my parents didn't like him? I wouldn't want to have to choose. Or what if he was gay? I mentally smacked myself for being ridiculous. If he was gay, wouldn't he have come out of the closet by now? California was a pretty Liberal state, even back then. But being in his arms made me forget about my worries._

"_So you want to go outside?" I asked coyly. _

_Daniel separated himself from me, looked up in a state of mock thinking, and said, "You talked me into it."_

_We both laughed, and I heard a strange noise. I looked over and saw someone in a chicken suit._

"_Hey!" Daniel yelled. "Check out this chicken! He's wild!"_

_I noticed that he was smashing things onto people's heads, which I realized, a split-second later, were eggs._

"_Oh my God, he's using real eggs!" I said._

_I then noticed that Daniel was in the chicken's sights. And, in spite of Daniel's protests, the chicken threw an egg at Daniel which shattered over his head, and the yellow yolk ran all over his head. I cracked up at that part, I couldn't help it, it was so funny!_

_Our little private moment we were supposed to have had to be delayed as Daniel went to the bathroom to wash the egg out of his hair. I, on the other hand, went back to my friends. I know that they didn't necessarily approve of Daniel. They were, in a way, kind of like my parents, as in they always judged someone by how much money they had. They were shallow, no doubt about it. I sat around, thinking about what to do next, wondering if I was really in love, or if it was still nothing more than a crush, when I heard a commotion coming from the bathroom. _

_I saw Daniel running out of the bathroom, yelling at people to get out of his way. I saw him run past the Cobra Kais, dressed as skeletons._

_I stood up to see what was going on. _

"_Whoa, Daniel, what's going on?" I yelled at him._

_He ran past me, yelling, "It's coming around!" immediately answering my question._

_I looked over and saw Johnny chasing him, and him rallying up the rest of his Cobra Kai buddies. I stuck out the little wooden handle on my fake royal mask thingy and used it to trip them._

_I saw Daniel and the Cobra Kais leave the gym, and all of a sudden, I was worried. What if they beat Daniel up again? I closed my eyes right then, without drawing suspicion to myself, and prayed to God that Daniel wouldn't get hurt, and if he did get attacked, he would either be able to fight off his attackers or someone would help him._

_I spent the rest of that night and all of the following Sunday worrying about Daniel. Monday morning was, of course, another school day, and I saw Daniel at his locker, getting some of his stuff. I decided that I would surprise him._

_I snuck up on Daniel, tapped him on the shoulder, and quickly went around his back as he turned to face me. After he put two and two together, he turned around and saw me. He immediately smiled that cute smile I liked so much at me, but I noticed something different about him._

"_Hey!" he said. "I've been looking all over for you today! Where you been?"_

_I immediately noticed the white bandage on Daniel's forehead, just above his right eyebrow, and I was immediately disgusted at Johnny again._

"_I don't believe it." I said._

"_What?" Daniel asked._

_I turned around, going to look for Johnny. I hadn't at that point decided how I felt about Daniel at that point, but that doesn't mean that I didn't care about him._

"_Hey, where you going?" he yelled after me._

"_I'm going to go find that idiot, Daniel." I answered back at him. "It's going to stop."_

"_Hey, relax." Daniel said, moving to stop me. "Everything's been taken care of."_

"_Oh, yeah." I said sarcastically. "Until next time, huh?"_

"_No!" he argued back. "There isn't going to be a next time!" _

_I looked over and saw Johnny. "Well, there they are." I said._

_Daniel looked around, then he put his hand on my shoulder. I immediately felt my shoulder heat up where he had touched it, and for a split-second, I was confused as to why that happened._

"_Hey, watch this." Daniel said. I noticed that Johnny and the Cobra Kais were in pretty bad shape. Johnny had a black eye, and Tommy's arm was in a cast and sling._

_Daniel walked up to the Cobra Kais, and started mouthing off to them, asking Tommy if his arm was okay, and saying something about not stepping in front of anymore buses or something like that._

_I looked at Daniel in complete disbelief. "You did all that damage?" I asked._

"_Well," Daniel said. "Didn't you know that when you make a wish in the shower, it always comes true?"_

"_I should have kept my mouth shut." I said, standing corrected._

"_Oh, we've got an agreement." Daniel said._

"_Oh, yeah?" I said, all of a sudden interested. "What's that?"_

"_Well, they agreed not to beat up on me, and I agreed not to get my blood on their clothes. That was the deal. " Daniel said._

_I laughed. "I don't believe it." I said._

"_Well, what am I going to do?" Daniel asked. "Moan and groan?"_

"_Well, anyone else would." I said._

"_Yeah, well, who would listen anyway?" Daniel asked. _

"_Me." I answered simply._

"_Oh, really?" Daniel asked, interested. "You, um, feel like listening on Saturday night then?"_

_I couldn't believe he just asked that. I had been thinking about it for a while, but I wasn't expecting it. However, I did know what I would say if Daniel ever asked me out._

"_Sure." Was all I could say._

"_All right. Great." Daniel said. "Great. So, Saturday night. We'll go out, have a good time, we'll do whatever…" he kept rambling on._

_I had already taken out a slip of paper, and was busy writing down my address._

_Daniel noticed what I was doing. "What, is that your address?" he asked._

"_You got it." I said, giggling again. I handed the slip of paper to him, when the one-minute bell rang. I knew I had to get to class, or I'd be late, and I couldn't afford to be late again. I had already gotten a couple of warnings from my teachers about that._

"_I gotta go." I said._

"_All right, I'll talk to you later, then." Daniel said as I walked away._

_I could barely wait for Saturday night to come. I was going out with a boy that I was interested in for a change, instead of someone that my parents would set me up with._

_Saturday night finally came, and I was ready. I had put on my favorite blue t-shirt and white button-up sweatshirt. _

_I was looking in the mirror, making some last-minute adjustments, when I heard the telltale sound of a vehicle pulling up. I looked out the window, and I saw an old, run-down, late-model green station wagon. I then saw my parent's car pull up, just as Daniel came up the front steps. I opened the door, ready to greet him._

_I took in how Daniel looked. He would obviously never get my parent's seal of approval, but he definitely got mine. He looked so handsome with his grey pull-over sweatshirt and his green-and-white checkered overshirt._

"_Hi." I said._

"_Hey," Daniel said. "You look good."_

"_Thank you." I responded to him. He was such a gentleman. _

_Daniel began to look over at my parents, coming home from a doubles-tennis tournament at the Country Club. "I see you have company here." He said._

"_Oh, those are my parents." I said to him. "Come on, I'll introduce you to them."_

"_Oh, great." Daniel said. I could sense the fear in his voice. He must not have gone on a lot of dates before._

"_Hello, sweetheart." My dad said to me, embracing me. _

"_Hello, dad." I said back to him, returning the hug. I gestured toward Daniel. "Mom, Dad," I began. "This is Daniel LaRusso, and these are my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Mills."_

_Daniel, being polite, immediately shook both my parents' hands._

"_Where are you going, honey?" my mother asked me._

_My mind drew a blank. "I don't know." I said. I turned to Daniel. "Where are we going?"_

"_I don't know." Daniel said. I mentally smacked and kicked myself at the same time. I had forgotten that Daniel still didn't know the West Valley area to well. "Wherever you want to go." He finished. _

"_Golf 'n Stuff?" I suggested._

"_All right, I guess we're going to Golf 'n Stuff." Daniel said. He absentmindedly moved his foot around and accidentally knocked a loose brick off of the brick garden holder._

"_Oops." Daniel said._

"_Oh, uh, don't worry about that." My father said. He turned to my mother. "I thought you were going to get that fixed."_

"_I was. I am. I will." My mother stammered._

_My father quickly changed the subject. "So, you, uh, live in Encino, Daniel?" he asked._

"_What?" Daniel said. "Encino? No." he said, shaking his head._

"_Where do you live?" my mother asked._

"_Uh, out around Reseda." Daniel answered truthfully._

"_And, is that your mother?" she inquired._

"_Yeah." Daniel said happily. "That's her."_

_I heard Mrs. LaRusso yell hi to my parents from the window of her station wagon._

"_She's, uh, waiting for us." Daniel said, breaking the ice. "We gotta get going. Nice to meet you." He finished._

"_Not too late, sweetheart." My dad said to me._

"_Okay, dad." I said._

_We began to walk toward the station wagon. "I feel like an idiot." Daniel muttered to me. But I ignored him._

_I walked up to the window of the passenger's side of the station wagon. "Hi, Mrs. LaRusso!" I said cheerfully. "I'm Ali."_

"_Hi, Ali." She said. "Call me Lucille. That's a beautiful house you have." _

_I got in the middle seat, while Daniel got in the passenger's seat, closing the door behind him. Lucille began to turn the keys in the ignition. The car began to start, but the engine sputtered and died._

_Mrs. LaRusso, however, seemed unphased. She turned to me._

"_Can you drive a stick?" she asked._

"_Yeah." I answered._

"_Good." She said. "Put it to second, let it roll, and when I say pop it, pop it." _

"_Pop it." I acknowledged. _

_Daniel and his mother got out of the car, and went around to the back. _

"_Don't worry, it's all under control." She assured my parents._

_I put the car in second, letting it roll. They must have not had a lot of money. I knew my parents were judging them at that moment. But I didn't care; they seemed like a normal family. I never let my friends or my parents know this, but sometimes I wish I lived in a middle or lower class family, at least they didn't have to deal with stuck-up people and fancy parties. People like Daniel and his mother; they really knew how to live._

_After popping the clutch at Lucille's command, we were off to Golf n' Stuff. I gave her directions to the place, and soon, we were in the parking lot._

_Daniel and I got out of the car. "I'll pick you up at eleven." Lucille said. "Don't be late." She warned._

_Daniel and I began to walk across the parking lot, when Daniel noticed the place's giant water slide._

"_Hey, look at that slide, huh?" he said._

"_Yeah." I agreed. "We'll come back and do that next time, okay? Come on." I motioned to him to follow me._

"_Hey, why next time?" Daniel asked._

"_Because we need bathing suits." I answered him._

"_Oh, yeah." He said. "Bathing suits."_

_As we walked across the parking lot, I had an idea of what to do first. "Hey, you play hockey?" I asked him._

"_Uh, well," he said. "Not professionally."_

_The night still plays out to me like a movie montage. _(Which it was! LOL!) _We played miniature hockey, miniature golf, rode around in bumper boats, raced go-karts, jumped around in a moon-bounce, and got our picture taken in a photo booth. I still have one of those pictures to this day. I also remember Daniel telling me more about himself, expanding on how he was from New Jersey, his Italian-American family, all of his uncles. I still remember him telling me about the saddest moment in his life. All because of one simple question I asked him._

"_Daniel," I had asked, while we sipped the Cokes he had bought us. "I know that you have a mother, but what about your father? Are your parents divorced?"_

_Daniel sighed. I knew, at that moment, that I had touched a sensitive spot. "Well, it's not a happy story," he said. "My father was born on November 12__th__, 1949 in Seattle, in the state of Washington. His name was Andrew. When he was five years old, he moved to New Jersey. He met my mother on their first day of Kindergarten. They were fast friends, both my mother and my father. When they were in their senior year in high school, my mother and father fell in love with each other. On their Sadie-Hawkins dance that year, they went out and they did it in the back of my father's car. My mother then found out that she was pregnant with me shortly after. They were both eighteen, too young to have a child, but they wanted me nonetheless. Both sets of my grandparents, my mother and father, were loving and supportive, unlike most parents today. So, in order to get a job, my dad dropped out of school, while my mother stayed, and my father joined the Marines. I was born on December 18__th__ of that year, in 1966. My father told me that I was the best late birthday-present he had ever received. Shortly after, though, my father was sent to Vietnam. He was eventually promoted to the rank of Sergeant, and he saved a lot of his men from North Vietnamese and Vietcong attacks. That was when he received word that his parents, my grandparents, were killed in a car wreck. I was too young to remember them, but I know that my grandfather's name was Daniel, and my dad had named me after him. So, technically, my full name is Daniel Joseph LaRusso the Second."_

_Daniel paused. I feared the worst. "Daniel," I asked carefully. "Was your father killed in Vietnam?" _

"_Yes and no." Daniel said. I was confused, but intrigued to learn more. Daniel sighed, and continued. "My father returned from Vietnam after being a rescued prisoner. Luckily, he hadn't changed that much. He returned in 1968, when I was two. He left shortly before the Tet Offensive, so he didn't get to see that. He wasn't required to go back. However, he was tortured to the extreme in Vietnam, and exposed to some nasty chemicals in the process. When he returned, he knew that Vietnam was a lost cause. He always said that Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon had fucked him over."_

_I paused at what Daniel had just said. He was such a sweet kid; he was the last person I expected on Earth to say the word fuck._

_Daniel took a deep breath, and continued. "The next six years I spent with my dad were some of the best years of my life. I loved my father so much, along with my mother. Shortly after his twenty-fourth birthday in 1973, I was seven years old, and my father came home from the doctor's office, and my mother was crying. I asked what was wrong, and it turned out that those chemicals that my father had been exposed to in Vietnam had caused him to contract cancer in his pancreas, and the doctor's only gave him two months to live. On my birthday that year, after my father gave me my present, a toy clown, since he knew I loved clowns, my father all of sudden, collapsed. He was rushed to the hospital, and then sent home, where he was given doctor's orders to remain in bed. Christmas wasn't a happy time that year and neither was New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Finally, on January 5__th__, 1974, my father held my hand, told me that he loved me, I said that I loved him back, and then he just died. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, one of the biggest and most respected military burial grounds in all of the United States. I was given a folded American flag by one of the Marine's my father had risked his life to save, and he was buried with the slogan on his grave that said "Death is nothing more than the next great adventure."_

_Daniel finished his story, but there were no tears in his eyes. "Oh, Daniel." I said, quickly wrapping my arms around him. "I'm so sorry." _

"_Don't worry about it." He said. "I have no more tears to shed about it. I cried enough at my father's deathbed. It was shortly after that that I started taking karate classes at the local YMCA, to help me cope, while my mother went to college. Sometimes, to this day, I still hear my father's voice guiding me in everything I do in life. I love living, but I also can't wait for the day that I know I'll see him again."_

_It was about time to leave to meet Daniel's mother. While walking to the parking lot, we bumped into Eddie, whom I introduced Daniel to, and, all of a sudden, Johnny and his Cobra Kai friends showed up and started to harass both Daniel and his mother. They had invited me to go with them somewhere, to the hills for a party, or something, but I declined. As I got in Lucille's car, Daniel said "You know, you could have gone."_

"_Yeah, well, I didn't want too." I said coolly. _

"_Well, it's no big deal." He said to me._

"_Okay, Daniel, if I really wanted to go, I would have." I said, unintentionally hurt._

"_Well, it makes no difference to me." He said. "Do whatever you want to do, I don't care."_

_When I got home, I went to my bedroom to get ready for bed. While getting ready, I began to reflect on that night. Despite that sour note, I enjoyed that night. Then I started to think about nothing but Daniel. Before turning off the light and going to sleep, I knew it had happened. "I'm in love." I thought, before drifting off to sleep, dreaming about that special boy I had fallen for._

_A few days later, I was playing soccer on the soccer field with Daniel. I had played a little bit when I was a little girl, but I never was that much into it. I dodged the players and Daniel's attempts to block me, and ended up scoring a goal on him._

"_Hey, not bad," he said admirably. "Definitely varsity material there." He commented._

_I smiled. Daniel and I were still just friends, officially. It was killing me, being secretly in love with him, but not wanting to tell him in case he didn't feel the same way. I had been trying my hardest to not obsess over him, but it was really hard, since I had never been in love before in my entire life._

"_Yeah." I said. "Definitely not me."_

"_Hey, I was thinking about calling you," Daniel said. "Thinking about trying that slide Friday night. You up for it?"_

"_Yeah." I said._

"_Yeah, all right." Daniel said. "So, I'll pick you up a little around seven?"_

_I then mentally smacked myself for forgetting. "Oh," I said. "I'm uh, having dinner with my parents at their country club Friday night."_

_  
Daniel hung his head in disappointment, when I put my arm on his shoulder. "But I'll be done by nine-thirty." I said. "Meet me out front."_

"_Is that cool?" Daniel asked, and I could tell he was unsure of himself._

"_Yeah." I said. I then noticed that Daniel turned away, trying to avoid Johnny's gaze. "What's the matter?" I asked, knowing exactly what was wrong._

"_Oh, I'm just hearing that little voice again." Daniel said._

"_Yeah?" I asked playfully. "Pretend your deaf." I began to walk away to get to the locker room and change out of my cheerleading uniform. "Encino Oaks Country Club, nine-thirty." I instructed him._

_Friday couldn't come fast enough, and pretty soon, I was at the country club, dancing with my father. I looked over and saw Johnny, just staring at me. I turned away with a scornful look on my face. My father happened to notice._

"_Trouble with Johnny?" he asked. "You two lovebirds having problems?"_

"_Dad, we're not lovebirds." I said, annoyed. Then I just thought of something. "Dad, what time is it?" I asked him._

"_Well, it's about," my father said, pulling out his watch. "Nine-forty." He said, telling me the time._

_I mentally smacked myself again. I was doing that a lot lately. "Uh, I gotta go." I said to him._

"_You have a date?" my father asked._

"_Uh...," I said, not knowing how to answer without casting suspicion._

"_With whom?" my father asked suspiciously. _

"_Dad, it's a friend." I said shortly, trying to get him off my case._

"_Not that boy from Reseda?" he asked._

"_Yeah, he's from Reseda." I said defiantly. "He's a nice guy. God, it's no big deal."_

_Just then, my mother came over dancing with Johnny. "Honey," she said. "I think you've monopolized the frickin' best looking man long enough." She took my father and started dancing with him, leaving me alone with Johnny. _

"_Hi." Johnny said. He began to dance with me. I didn't like this one bit. I knew he had been drunk the night that he had tried to rape me, but I could never forgive him. Not in a million years._

"_Listen, I've been thinking." He said. "Maybe we can call a truce."_

"_Yeah, I'm not at war." I said coldly. "Excuse me." I said as I began to walk away._

_He pulled me back. "Can we at least finish the dance?" he asked._

_I relented, knowing that he would eventually have to release me. Then, I could make my break for it._

_I was, at that point, to busy thinking about how I was keeping Daniel waiting. It was then that I was caught off guard when Johnny all of a sudden grabbed my face and kissed me hungrily. I struggled to get free. I didn't want this. I finally broke free, and pushed him. _

"_DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT TO ME AGAIN!" I yelled. I then heard a crash. I saw Daniel there, as he had backed into a waiter carrying spaghetti in the kitchen. I immediately felt bad, as I knew, that from the back, to Daniel, that is, that my struggling to get free must have looked like I was kissing Johnny back._

_Everyone was laughing at Daniel, while my parents were shocked. I then saw Daniel run away, a hurt look on his face. I turned around and delivered a hard slap to Johnny's cheek. I then ran away, following Daniel. But when I went out the back exit from the kitchen, he had disappeared. I decided I would talk to him again at school, and attempt to explain myself. Maybe then, I would also tell him how I felt about him._

_I saw Daniel again at school the following Monday, and he was in the main office, on the phone with somebody he was calling Mr. Miyagi, whoever that was. He was talking about training for that karate tournament. The same tournament that Johnny was going to be participating in. I immediately got scared, scared that Daniel was going to get hurt very badly. I attempted to talk to him, but he took one look at me, scowled at me, and left. I followed him, trying to tell him I was sorry, but he kept ignoring me until he disappeared into the crowd, out of sight. I felt my heart rip in two. I ran away, and found a place alone, and I began to cry both my heart and my eyes out._

_I remember talking to Eddie, Susan, and Barbara about it, but they all agreed that maybe it was for the best, and it wasn't meant to be, and that there were other boys out there, some who might actually care about me._

_I began to feel better after a couple of days, and the week after, I realized it was Daniel's birthday. That made me feel bad all over again, but to take my mind off of it, I went out to Golf n' Stuff with Barbara and Susan. I knew that this was the place where I had my first date with Daniel, but they said that if I could get through a night at the place I fell in love with him without crying, then I would be over him._

_Susan and I were playing a virtual version of clay pigeon shooting, with the light guns that were shaped like shotguns, and I didn't expect Daniel to jump in front of the screen._

_He jumped in front of the screen, begging us not to shoot. We did anyway, and he pretended to fall down and die._

_I began to walk away, trying my best to ignore him, just like he had ignored me. "Hey," he said. "Hey! Don't leave me here! I'm wounded!" he said, still pretending to be dying._

"_Good, maybe you'll die." I heard Susan say._

_I went over and started playing with the Pac-Man machine, continuing to ignore Daniel, before he came over and stood next to me. "Hey," he said. "I just wanted to apologize." _

"_Fine. You apologized." I said bitterly._

_Daniel was persistent, though. "You know," he said. "I got my license."_

"_Yeah, whoop-de-doo." I said, not caring._

"_Hey, what's with you?" Daniel asked. _

"_You expect me to do cartwheels or something?" I asked sarcastically. _

"_No, I just expected a little bit of courtesy, maybe." He said. "But I guess that's just for people with fancy cars and things like that, right?"_

_I began to walk away again, and I heard Barbara try to stop Daniel. "Hey, can't you take a hint?" she asked._

_I walked over to the same miniature hockey game the me and Daniel played when we first came here on our first date. I was trying my best to not burst into tears. And so far, I was doing well in that department._

_I heard him come after me. "Hey, what's the matter?" he asked. "The truth hurt?"_

_Daniel thought that I was a spoiled rich brat, the type of person I despised. I knew for a fact that I wasn't, I had never cared about that stuff. This was one of those times that I wished I had not been born into a rich family. Sure, it had its perks, but it doesn't mean I liked it._

"_You really think that's it, do you?" I asked him._

"_Oh, I know that's it." Daniel said._

"_Yeah, well, you're wrong." I said._

"_Oh, I bet I'm wrong." Daniel said._

"_You know, Daniel," I said. "I didn't go out with you because of a car or where you live."_

"_Okay, while your on the subject, why did you then?" he asked. I paused for a second. "Why did you?" Daniel inquired again._

"_Because I thought that maybe you were a little different." I answered him truthfully._

"_Yeah, we're different." Daniel said sarcastically. "I'm from Reseda, you're from the Hills. That's how we're different."_

_I turned around, trying to hide my hurt look. But he wasn't letting up. "Why can't you admit that you can't handle the situation the way it is, then?" he asked._

"_You know, I can handle it fine." I said. "You can't." I then left the arcade area, needing a place to be by myself._

_I had stopped at the water slide that Daniel and I were supposed to try before the incident at the country club, and I began to feel hot tears well up in my eyes again. I then heard rapid footsteps behind me, and then a hand tap me on the back._

"_Hey, slugger." I heard Daniel's voice say. I tried to ignore him, but maybe he was really going to apologize this time. I was debating over whether or not to tell him how I feel. "Look, I'm a jerk." He said._

_I started to giggle again. "You are a jerk." I said._

"_So, am I forgiven?" Daniel asked, and I began to giggle a little bit. "Huh? Hey, I don't hear anything." I started to giggle a little bit louder, and Daniel saw my point. "Hmm, sounds like a yes to me. Come here." _

_I turned around and was soon wrapped in a warm embrace by Daniel. After a few seconds of hugging, Daniel broke the ice. "So, I guess you know about the tournament tomorrow?" he asked._

"_Who doesn't?" I asked._

"_Dumb move, huh?" he asked._

"_Not necessarily." I answered._

"_I don't have much of a cheering section." Daniel said._

"_You got me." I said, grinning from ear to ear._

"_Well, I'll probably get killed in the first match, anyway." He said._

"_So we'll leave early." I said simply._

_It was at that moment that one of the best things to ever happen to me in my life happened. I'm still not sure who exactly made the first move, but the next thing I knew, the remaining space between our lips was gone, and I closed my eyes, letting Daniel kiss me. His lips were warm, and full of love for me. Our tongues danced in each other's mouths, as I kissed him back, knowing that he was the one. My heart sang with joy. He was so sweet and gentle, and I knew that I loved this kiss more than I had Johnny's hungry kiss. Johnny's kiss was lust filled, as opposed to Daniel's kiss, which was love filled. At least Daniel had beaten Johnny in that department._

_Pretty soon, the kiss was over, and we broke away, smiling. Daniel then showed me the car he had got for his birthday, and he let me drive it. We drove to the top of the Hills, were the city looked beautiful from that altitude._

_I turned to Daniel. "Daniel," I said. "What did that kiss mean to you?" I asked him._

_Daniel turned to me, and took a deep, quivering breath. "I'm not sure what it meant, Ali," he said. "I know that I'm probably going to regret saying this, but…," he took another deep breath, before continuing. "I love you, Ali. I'm deeply, truly in love with you."_

_I felt my heart skip a beat. I gasped. "Daniel," I began. "Did you really mean that?"_

_Daniel nodded. "Yeah, I do." He admitted._

_I wrapped my arms around Daniel, and held him. "I love you too, Daniel. I love you so much." _

_Daniel looked at me, with a happy look on his face. We then kissed again, with much more love and passion than the last kiss._

_After taking me home that night, I met up with him and his karate teacher, Mr. Miyagi, a kindly old Japanese-American man, as we were signing Daniel up for the tournament._

"_Listen, what belt are you?" the receptionist asked Daniel._

"_Belt?" Daniel asked, and Mr. Miyagi said, "Why matter?"_

"_Well, this division is only for brown belt or above." The receptionist said._

"_Oh, well, boy black belt." Miyagi answered._

"_Okay." The receptionist said, making note of Daniel's entry on his clipboard. "You better hustle, they're starting. Down the hall, and to your left."_

_I gave Daniel a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you inside." I said. Daniel then ran off to get to the locker room to change._

_I was about to go to the competition area, but Mr. Miyagi grabbed my wrist and held me for a second, motioning for me to stop for a second. He distracted the receptionist while he grabbed his black belt from his duffel bag. He handed the belt to me, and I, receiving his instructions, quickly tucked the belt underneath my sweatshirt, and went to the competition area to wait for Daniel._

_I waited until Daniel came out, struggling with his karate uniform, trying to keep the front end of it closed. "Hey, Mr. Miyagi!" he called._

"_Hey, Daniel-san, hurry up, come on. Tournament starting!" Miyagi responded, as I went to tie the black belt around Daniel's waist._

"_Hey, where'd you get this?" Daniel asked._

"_Buddha provide." Miyagi said._

_The announcer called for Daniel to report to ring three. "Hey, where's ring three?" Daniel asked._

"_Ah, over there." Miyagi said, pointing._

"_Hold it!" A referee called. "Only teachers and students allowed on the competition floor. I'm sorry." He said, referring to me._

_Daniel looked at me and then Mr. Miyagi. "Oh, he doesn't speak English," he said, pointing to Mr. Miyagi. He then pointed to me. "And I can't understand his instructions without her. She's his translator."_

_At that point, I pretended to listen intently as Miyagi said something in Japanese. "What did he say?" the referee asked me. Improvising, I said, "Oh, he says you remind him of an uncle he has back in Tokyo." _

_Convinced, the referee smiled. "Well, I guess its okay." He said. Miyagi said something else in Japanese. "What?" he asked. "Oh, he says your very kind." I said to the referee._

"_Oh, thank you." The referee said. "Welcome." Miyagi said back._

_We walked toward ring three, and Daniel asked, "All right, what are the rules here?"_

"_Don't know." Miyagi said. "First time you, first time me."_

"_What!" Daniel exclaimed. "I thought you knew about this stuff. I figured you went to this stuff before! Oh, great, I'm dead! You told me you fought a lot!"_

"Ah, for life, not for points." Mr. Miyagi said.

_Fortunately, I had been to many of these things when I was still dating Johnny. "Daniel, look." I said. "Everything above your waist is a point. You can hit the head, the sternum, the kidneys, and the ribs. You got it?"_

"_I hope so." Daniel said._

"_Come on, you can do it." I said to Daniel, encouraging him. Just then, Johnny and the Cobra Kais came over and began to harass Daniel a little bit, chanting Cobra Kai over and over again._

"_When are you jerks going to grow up?" I asked them, disgusted with their behavior. _

_Daniel got to ring three, ready to face his first opponent, after taking Miyagi's advice as to not get hit._

_Luckily, Daniel managed to win all of his matches, whether it be by miracle, or sheer luck, I don't know, but he made it to the semi-finals, up against Bobby. After Bobby hit Daniel with illegal contact, getting him disqualified, I met up with Lucille and Miyagi in the locker room, where the doctor told Daniel he was out of commission._

"_I'll inform the judges." The doctor said. He turned to Daniel. "You did well out there, young man." Then he left._

"_Damn it." Daniel cursed._

"_Honey," Lucille said. "Forget it. Hey, you were great! I couldn't be prouder. It was just bad luck."_

"_Daniel, you would have won if they hadn't cheated." I said._

"_Just leave me alone for a minute, okay." Daniel said. _

"_We'll be outside." Lucille said, kissing her son on the forehead._

_Lucille and I left the locker room, waiting for Daniel to be disqualified, when Miyagi came out. _

"_Ali-chan." He said. "Inform judge, Daniel-san is going to fight."_

_The main judge was about to announce Johnny as the winner of the tournament, but then, I ran up to him, informing him that Daniel was going to fight regardless. His fifteen minutes weren't quite up yet, so he had plenty of time._

_Well, long story short, Daniel won. He was crowned champion. I had run up to him and hugged him. He was so happy. I followed him to the entrance of the boy's locker room, and gave him a passionate kiss before he went to got take a shower._

_I had heard some time later that Mr. Miyagi had saved Johnny's life from Kreese's temper tantrum in which he grabbed him and almost crushed his windpipe. I never thought I would be thinking this at that time, but I felt sorry for Johnny. He may have tried to rape me, but even he didn't deserve what Kreese gave him._

_We had one of the best meals I had ever had in my life, celebrating Daniel's victory. My love for Daniel grew deeper that night. Even though I knew I was being ridiculous, I thought that if Daniel ever proposed to me, asked me to marry him, I would say yes in a heartbeat._

_End flashback, for now…,_

Ali had climbed the stairs, and stopped in front of a white door. Behind that white door, there was a secret that she had been keeping from Daniel for seven years.

_Begin new flashback…,_

_Daniel and I had just did what we wanted to do, in riding that huge water slide at Golf n' Stuff, and he decided it was time to take me home. We went back to my place. My parents were out at some conference that would keep them away for the weekend. It was a Saturday night, a couple of weeks before Senior Prom. We had decided to go with blue for our couple color. But I wanted to show him how much I loved him. I had gone and purchased birth control pills for myself, and I just wanted Daniel. I wanted us to express our love, wanted to strengthen our already strong bond, deepen our love. I was going to surprise him that night._

_Daniel went to go use the bathroom, so I decided to wait for him in my bedroom. When I heard the toilet flush, I called out to him. "Daniel!" I called. "Could you come in here please?"_

_I heard Daniel coming, and I quickly hid behind the door, waiting for him. I saw him come in, and I shut the door, revealing myself to him. Before he could say anything, I immediately closed the gap between us, and started to kiss him passionately. Daniel immediately wrapped his arms around me and kissed me back and I led him to my bed._

_Daniel immediately knew what I wanted. And he wasn't reluctant at all. His erection said all; he wanted me just as much as I wanted him. We kept kissing and hugging each other, pausing only to breathe and remove another article of clothing. Pretty soon, we were both naked. After a little bit of foreplay, I rolled over on to my back and spread my legs, showing him that I was ready, and that I was his to take. Daniel took his time, slowly, gently entering me. Pretty soon, he had penetrated my hymen, effectively taking my virginity, and it hurt like hell at first. But the pain soon changed to pleasure, as Daniel gently thrusted in and out, as I moaned in pleasure. I knew that our bond was strengthening with every thrust and every moan. Pretty soon, we both came at the same time, and then Daniel kissed me, and then panted, trying to catch his breath. I looked up at him, and smiled. I thought he looked handsome clothed, but naked, he was amazing. _

_There was no need for words, but words were spoken anyway. "I love you, Daniel." I said._

"_I love you too, Ali." Daniel whispered back to me. He kissed me passionately again, and then he cuddled up next to me, our bodies still as one, and we both fell asleep. _

_I thought that it was nothing but smooth sailing from that point on, but that wasn't the case. _

_I was standing over the bathroom sink. "No!" I sobbed. I quickly dropped the pregnancy test. I had been throwing up, and I had bought a home pregnancy test, fearing the worst. It was a couple of nights before Senior Prom. The pregnancy test showed a big blue plus symbol, meaning positive._

_I was sick. I didn't know what to do. What would I tell Daniel? What if he decided to leave me? He didn't have a lot of money; I didn't think he could afford this child. What about my parents? How would they react? I quickly called Susan up, and started to talk to her, and almost immediately told her of my discovery. She told me to calm down, and that those home pregnancy tests weren't always accurate, citing that her older, married sister had had a false alarm (which really disappointed her sister) after misreading a pregnancy test._

_I knew that one thing was for sure, that if it did turn out for the worst, I would never consider abortion. I'm extremely pro-life, always have been, always will be._

_The night of Senior Prom, I mentioned to Daniel that I needed to borrow his car to get something for my dress. In reality, I drove to the doctor, where he tested me. The results came back positive. I couldn't let Daniel know about this baby, no matter what. _

_I had a small accident when I rear-ended someone, but luckily, I was able to drive back to see Daniel. Luckily, no blood came from my genital area, so at least the baby was safe. I had to leave Daniel, to protect him. And I came up with the best idea, or what I thought was the best idea at the time._

_I drove over and met with Daniel, and I apologized for the damage to the car. But I knew what to do._

"_We have to break up, Daniel." I said. _

_Daniel, who had been checking out the damage to his car, quickly stopped. "Why?" he said. He was already dressed up in his blue tux for prom that night._

"_I've been seeing someone else." I said, knowing that I was hurting him by lying to him. "A football player from UCLA. I fell in love with this guy, Daniel. I just don't love you anymore."_

_And then, I turned around and ran as fast as I could, turning around to make sure that Daniel wasn't following me. I then ran and hid in an alleyway, and broke down, crying._

_Eddie, Barbara, and Susan didn't approve of what I was doing, saying that Daniel had a right to know about the child, but they swore secrecy anyway. I avoided Daniel's gaze during the graduation ceremony that year._

_I was three months pregnant, going to college to get a good job, and hopefully get a good job for my baby. My parent's hadn't noticed the pregnancy; they just assumed that I had been gorging myself on junk food. But, I'll never forget the night they found out._

_My mother had fainted, and my father had demanded that I go to an abortion clinic, especially after he found out it was Daniel's child. He assumed that Daniel had raped me, and was infuriated when I told him that I had willingly slept with him. Eventually, I was kicked out of the house, and I stayed with Barbara and Susan, who had an apartment together as roommates. _

_Six months later, after a great deal of pain, I had given birth to a beautiful, healthy baby boy. I remembered when Daniel told me about his father, and as a tribute to the father of the man I loved, I named my baby Andrew James LaRusso II, with hopes that I would be reunited with Daniel one day. _

_I had met Ben, and, even though I didn't love him, I decided it was time to move on. I married him, but didn't realize how much pain and heartache it would cause. He was abusive, and I found out that he made most of his money by dealing illegal drugs. I didn't want myself or Andrew growing up around that, but it was the only way to make things meet. But Andrew was scared of Ben, and I prayed to God that I would one day be with Daniel again, and that he could meet his real father._

_End flashback…,_

Ali had broken into silent tears, and my son heard him, and came out to see her, carrying his toy Optimus Prime. Andrew was a fan of that cartoon _The Transformers,_ and he had wanted a toy Optimus Prime. He didn't throw a temper tantrum about it, but Ali knew that he had wanted it. Barbara and Susan had given me the money to pay for it, because she wanted to give it to him for his birthday that year, as he was turning seven. He never wanted anything else, besides that toy Optimus Prime, and the hope that we would one day escape from Ben, and his mother would have a new husband one day.

"What's wrong, mommy?" he asked. He was the spitting image of his father; the only difference is that he had my eyes. And even though he never met his father, he had his father's sweetness, the same sweetness she had fallen in love with. Ali had never told him about his real father, except for the fact that it wasn't Ben. Ali also kept a small scrapbook that she hid from Ben; since it was one of the things she could escape to when Ben would beat her. "Did Ben hit you again?"

I closed my eyes and nodded. I quickly hugged my seven-year-old boy. He may not have looked it, but her son was a great listener.

"Listen, Andrew." Ali said. "I'm going out for a coffee, so, I want you to take Optimus and hide in either your closet or under your bed, and keep hidden from Ben as much as you can. I'll be back soon."

"Okay, mommy." Andrew said. He disappeared into his room, and Ali left, not knowing what she was going to see when she went to get her coffee.

Ali walked to the nearby McDonalds, where she went to buy her coffee. She ordered her coffee, and noticed that it was from Starbucks, which reminded her unintentionally of Daniel, since Starbucks was from Seattle, and so was Daniel's father. Ali put the thought out of her mind, and took her coffee over to the accessory area, which had sugar and cream, which Ali liked to mix into her coffee.

Ali set her coffee over a booth where there was a man in an Army uniform eating his meal whilst reading the LA Times. However, when Ali reached over to grab a stirrer for her cream and sugar, she accidentally knocked over her cup of coffee, which spilled all over the man.

"DAMN, THAT'S HOT COFFEE!" the man exclaimed. Ali winced. She hadn't meant to accidentally burn someone with her carelessness. The man got up and ran to the men's room. Ali decided to wait until he came out so she could apologize.

The man came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, wiping his face with a handkerchief.

"I'm sorry, sir." Ali said to the strange man.

"It's all right, don't worry about it." The man responded. "It was an accident."

Ali watched the man wipe himself down, when she noticed something that caught her eye. The name tag on the breast of the man's uniform said Sergeant D. LaRusso. And he was tan-skinned. Could it be?

Ali decided it wouldn't hurt to find out. "Daniel?" she asked.

"Yeah?" the man said. "How'd you know my name?" he asked, before looking up, and did a double take.

"Ali?" he asked, not believing what he was seeing.

_To be continued…,_

Author's notes: CLIFFHANGER! I know, I'm notorious for those. Fans of my other stories in the Pokemon and Resident Evil sections would be able to tell you that. Once again, sorry for the delay in the update, and sorry for the long chapter. I guess I got a little carried away. Now, to explain to you why the update was so long. I went through a bad life experience recently with my father, and I just found out that because of it, I have to go an extra year of high school in order to graduate in June of 2011 instead of June of 2010. I also got a Playstation 3, and had been doing a couple of Metal Gear Solid and Modern Warfare marathons. I also saw a few good movies recently, such as Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. I also saw the trailer for The Karate Kid remake, only three words about it. ASS! ASS! ASS! The Karate Kid is a movie that should have never been remade.

In other news, I discovered something interesting recently. Before Elisabeth Shue was Ali Mills, she made her first on-screen appearance in the eighties on commercials for Burger King.

.com/watch?v=XUVPLYhxZCU&feature=related

Just copy and paste the link into your search bar. All I can say is DAMN! I'm really starting to wish I had been born back in the sixties.

Anyway, read and review!


	3. Nervous Silence Daniel's side

**Secrets, Lies, and Love**

Chapter 3: Nervous Silence (Daniel's side)

Author's Notes: Time for Chapter 3 of my ongoing saga, Secrets, Lies, and Love. Now, I'm going to try something a little bit different here. Now, you'll notice that the chapter title includes the words Daniel's side. Keep in mind, this IS NOT A POINT OF VIEW PERSPECTIVE CHAPTER. What I'm going to do is write from a third-person perspective, but I'm going to show Daniel's side of the story for this chapter in Chapter 3. I will do Ali's side of the story in Chapter 4, and there will be moments of déjà vu in both chapters 3 and 4. Just to let you know.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except a headache I get trying to beat the frustrating but great video game, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.

Daniel had never been so nervous in his entire life. He remembered all the other times he had been nervous, such as his first day of Kindergarten, when he first entered puberty, the first karate tournament against the Cobra Kai, the situation with Sato and Chozen back in Okinawa, and his fight against Mike Barnes, to beat John Kreese and Terry Silver. Hell, even his days in Kuwait and Iraq weren't as bad as compared to this, not even when he was faced with certain death.

Ali Mills, the girl he had fallen in love with. The girl who left him for that football player at UCLA. The girl whom he hadn't seen in seven years, and never thought he'd see again. The girl that had been a recurring subject in his dreams and nightmares, and the topic of conversation with both Mr. Miyagi and Johnny Lawrence. The girl he had been trying to put out of his mind. Now, he was standing there in the California McDonalds, staring her down.

The last person he had ever wanted to see, not now, not when he wanted to clear his mind of the subject. The air between them was so thick; you could cut it with a steak knife.

Someone had to break the ice, and that person was Ali. Daniel found himself engulfed in a hug that he did not expect, and wasn't sure if he welcomed it or not.

"Oh my God, Daniel!" Ali exclaimed. "It's been a long time!"

Daniel, trying not to be rude, returned the hug, albeit reluctantly. When they pulled apart, Daniel noticed a silver wedding band on Ali's ring finger, and he felt his heart begin to split in two.

"Hey, Ali." Daniel said, trying to keep his composure, and doing a pretty good job at it. Those months in the Persian Gulf War had helped him learn how to cope with many things.

Daniel motioned to her ring finger. "So," he said. "I noticed that you're married now."

Ali, who seemed caught off guard for a second due to the sudden question, looked at her ring.

"Oh, yeah." Ali said. "Yep, married to the sweetest guy ever." She said with a smile. "I just remember falling in love with that football player, next thing you know, he becomes the star quarterback who wins the California State college football championship for UCLA, and he proposes to me with his victory, and we've been together ever since!"

Daniel felt his heart get hit by the emotional equivalent of a nuclear weapon at that point. However, his training in the Army and in life had trained him how to hold it back and let it turn to something else.

(Author's note: Red Dawn reference for the win!)

"Oh, that's good," Daniel said.

All of a sudden, he heard a beeping noise, and Ali checked her watch.

"Crap." She said. "Have to get back. Ben will be expecting me home soon."

Daniel, however, noticed a huge, red hand mark on Ali's face.

"What happened to your face?" Daniel asked.

Ali seemed caught off guard again, but she waved it away quickly. "Oh, this?" she asked, pointing to the imprint. "This was an accident. My husband was doing some jumping jacks right next to me, and I accidentally stepped into his reach and got hit. It's no big deal, he took care of me, and made sure I was all right."

"Okay." Daniel replied.

"Anyway, Daniel," Ali said, "I have to get back to Ben. But we should get together again sometime, catch up on old times. Can I get your phone number so we can discuss it?

"I'm in the book." Daniel said. "I have to leave myself, get back to base. My break is going to be over in thirty minutes."

And without another word, Daniel turned around, left the McDonalds, not even bothering to finish his meal, got in his car, and pulled out, leaving Ali behind, heading back to the Army base. He still didn't believe it; it was like God loved to play tricks on him. So, not only does he have those dreams about her, not only does it become a subject brought up by both Mr. Miyagi and Johnny, but now he has to meet the real thing and find out that she is married.

"God, what did I do to deserve this?" Daniel asked to his personal deity.

(Author's Note: Yeah, I wrote Daniel as believing in God. Gotta problem with that? If so, screw you!)

A little bit afterward, Daniel arrived back at his respective base. The last thing he wanted was for his little meeting with Ali to turn into an issue, so he decided not to mention it to Johnny. Instead, he sent his completed report on the M4 assault rifle to the general, and punched out at quitting time.

Avoiding Johnny and Patrick, Daniel got back in his car and began to drive home, turning on the radio to try and drive the thoughts of Ali from his mind. It was hard enough trying not to remember her when she all of a sudden came back into his life. Plus, the fact that she was now married didn't help matters since he was still in love with her. Neither did the song that came playing over the radio.

_Baby, don't understand,_

_Why we can't just live long to each other's hands,_

_This time might be the last, I fear,_

_Unless I make it all too clear,_

_I need you so, ohhhh…._

_Take these broken wings,_

_And learn to fly again, learn to live so free,_

_When we hear the voices sing,_

_The book of love will open up and let us in,_

_Take these broken wings…,_

_Baby, I think tonight,_

_We can take what is wrong and make it right,_

_Baby, it's all I know,_

_That you're half of the flesh and blood that makes me whole_

_I need you so, ohhhh…,_

_So take these broken wings._

_And learn to fly again, learn to live so free,_

_When we hear the voices sing,_

_The book of love will open up and let us in,_

_Yeah, let us in,_

_Let us in!_

_Baby, it's all I know,_

_That you're half of the flesh and blood that makes me whole,_

_Yeah, yeah, yeah…,_

_Yeah, yeah!_

_So take these broken wings,_

_And learn to fly again, to live so free,_

_When we hear the voices sing,_

_The book of love will open up and let us in,_

_Take these broken wings,_

_You've got to learn to fly, learn to live and love so free,_

_When we hear the voices sing,_

_The book of love will open up to us and let us in,_

_Yeah, yeah!_

_Ohhhh, yeah!_

_Broken Wings by Mr. Mister._

Daniel sighed. That song happened to be the same song that played on his radio the night after he had broken up with Ali. The night his heart was broken, when he found out that Ali had been cheating on him behind his back. (Author's Note: Yeah, I know, that's not the case, but Daniel doesn't know!) With a football player from UCLA. For the longest time, Daniel would change the channel whenever a UCLA football game would come on, since it reminded him of that painful night. And now, the playing of that song again had to be an omen, to remind him of the fact that it wasn't meant to be. The fact didn't make him feel any less pain, though.

"_Man, God must really love torturing me." _Daniel thought to himself.

Eventually, Daniel returned home, parked in his driveway, and went into his house. He walked up to the door, took out his key, and unlocked it, walking inside. He heard the telltale sound of the TV being on, and Mr. Miyagi resuming his newfound pastime of watching game shows. Daniel noticed that it was time for Jeopardy, so he knew that was what Mr. Miyagi was probably watching, and sure enough, when Daniel walked in, he saw Alex Trebeck on screen with the contestants, with Mr. Miyagi glued to the screen. Mr. Miyagi got the answer right too.

"We should write into them, Mr. Miyagi." Daniel said out loud. "See if we can't make you a contestant."

Mr. Miyagi turned around to see Daniel. "Oh, hello there, Daniel-san." He said. "No thanks. Miyagi don't want to make fool of himself on TV."

Daniel chuckled a little bit, then sighed. He had to get the subject off of his chest. "Hey, Mr. Miyagi," he said. "Can I talk to you? I have something I have to tell you."

"Sure, Daniel-san." Mr. Miyagi said. He picked up the remote and turned off the TV. "Must get rid of distraction."

"What about Jeopardy?" Daniel asked.

"Rerun." Mr. Miyagi explained.

"Oh," Daniel said, understanding completely. "Anyway, here's my story. Remember last Saturday morning, when I got up to get a beer, and you came in and we started talking about Ali?"

"Hai." Mr. Miyagi said. "Miyagi remember."

"Well, I got off work this afternoon for my lunch break, and I went over to McDonalds to get something to eat. So, I was sitting in the booth, reading the newspaper and eating my meal, when all of a sudden, someone spills hot coffee all over me." Daniel said.

"Hai." Mr. Miyagi said. "Miyagi wonder why you have strange stain all over uniform." He indicated by pointing at Daniel's coffee-stained Army uniform.

Daniel looked down at his uniform, embarrassed. "Yeah, I got to get my uniform washed tonight before I go in tomorrow." He said. "But that's not the point. So, I go into the men's room, to get some napkins to wipe myself down, and I walk out, wiping my face with my handkerchief, and the person who accidentally spilled the coffee on me comes up to apologize."

"Let Miyagi guess." Mr. Miyagi said. "This someone was Ali-chan?"

"Yeah." Daniel said. "So, she says my name, and I realize it's her. She then wraps me in a huge hug, and we catch up a little bit. And to tell you the truth, Mr. Miyagi, I still love her a lot."

"So, you have date?" Mr. Miyagi asked.

"No," Daniel said. "I noticed that she had a wedding ring on her finger."

"Oh," Mr. Miyagi said. "That problem."

"Yeah," Daniel said in agreement. "That pretty much affirms my belief that it wasn't meant to be, Mr. Miyagi."

"Ah," Mr. Miyagi sighed. "That only minor problem. Miyagi have good feeling about you two."

"Have you lost your mind, Mr. Miyagi?" Daniel asked. "She's married! She loves her husband, she's very happy with him! Besides, the last thing I want is to get my ass kicked by an ex-UCLA football player for messing around with his wife."

"Miyagi still have good feeling." Mr. Miyagi said.

"Whatever." Daniel said. He walked out onto his deck to unwind a little bit. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, put one in his mouth, lit it, and took a drag, blowing the smoke out and flicking away the ashes. Daniel had started smoking when he was in Kuwait, hell, all of the soldiers in his squad did. However, he only smoked once in a while, usually when he really needed to wind down. It didn't make the reaction any less severe though. He knew that Mr. Miyagi didn't approve of his smoking, and his mother had raised hell when she had found out, giving him the standard lecture about lung cancer and mouth cancer and emphysema, but ultimately knew it was Daniel's decision. The way the other soldiers had explained it to him was that after seeing the hell of war firsthand, a cigarette was a good way to calm down, and that's how Daniel ultimately picked up the habit.

Daniel just stood out on his deck, thinking about his meeting with Ali, replaying it over and over like a home movie. He had just finished his cigarette when Mr. Miyagi opened the sliding glass door and came out onto the deck.

"Daniel-san." Mr. Miyagi said. "Phone call for you."

"All right, Mr. Miyagi." Daniel said, dropping the cigarette butt and grinding it out with his heel.

Daniel turned around and went back inside, where he picked up the telephone.

"Hello?" he asked. He heard a weird noise on the other side of the phone.

"Hello?" he asked again, annoyed.

"Daniel?" the voice on the other end asked. "It's Ali."

"Ali?" Daniel asked. "How did you get my number?"

"Phone book." Ali said. Her voice sounded weird, like she was crying. "Listen, Daniel, there's something I need to tell you. Do you mind if I come over to tell you what it is? It's very important."

"Sure, Ali," Daniel said. "I don't see why not."

"Good, I'll see you there." Ali said, before hanging up.

Daniel set the receiver down, hanging up his phone. "What was that all about?" he asked to himself.

Author's Note: You're going to hate me for this, but another cliffhanger! Sorry, but I had to wrap this up, I've got somewhere I need to be in about an hour, and I need to get ready. Read and review, and I'll see you guys next time. I'll try to get Chapter 4 up sometime next weekend. Bye!


	4. Nervous Silence Ali's Side

**Secrets, Lies, and Love**

Chapter 4: Nervous Silence (Ali's side)

Author's Note: Time for Chapter 4. Now, as you all know, I mentioned at the beginning of Chapter 3 that there would be some moments of déjà vu in this chapter, and basically, this is a retelling of the last chapter, only this time from Ali's point of view. Also, stay tuned for the end of the chapter for a special announcement. And unlike last chapter, this one is a point of view chapter, so it is in first person perspective.

Disclaimer: Once again, I own nothing. If I did, Ali would have been Daniel's girl throughout the entire trilogy.

_Ali's POV:_

"Ali?" I heard Daniel ask.

I couldn't believe it. After all the praying, the heartache, the heartbreak, the struggle, and the abuse, I was finally staring down the man I was, and always have been, deeply in love with. I began to study him more closely, taking him in. He had some physical changes, all right. His skin was still tanned, and he still had that cute face, though a little bit more aged. All in all, still a very handsome man.

I couldn't contain myself any longer. I just had to break the ice. I quickly threw my arms around him, thanking God that I had found him again. He hugged me back, although it felt very reluctant.

"Oh my God, Daniel!" I squealed. "It's been a long time!"

We pulled apart, and I took in his uniform. Daniel LaRusso, an honorable soldier in the United States Army, who would have thought? I didn't know that much about the military, but I know that Daniel had to be a hero somehow.

"Hey Ali." He said. "So, I noticed that you're married now."

I looked down at the wedding band on my finger. I mentally smacked myself. Here I was, with the man I had been in love with for a long time, the illegitimate father of my son, and I was married to a man I didn't want to be married to, a man who abused me and dealt illegal drugs for a living. I just couldn't believe what was going on.

"Oh yeah." I said, quickly thinking up a lie. "Yep, married to the sweetest guy ever. I just remember falling in love with that football player, next thing you know, he becomes the star quarterback who wins the California state football championship for UCLA, and he proposes to me with his victory, and we've been together ever since!"

"Oh," Daniel said. "That's good." Though he looked kind of hurt when he said that. Could it be that he still had feelings for me? I hoped and prayed to myself that he did, as I felt bad for continuing to lie to him.

My train of thought was interrupted when I heard my wristwatch beeping. I knew what that beeping meant. It meant that Ben would be waking up soon, and I would have to get back to the house, in order to somehow protect Andrew, and get Ben's dinner ready.

"Crap." I said, deciding to keep up my lies. "Have to get back. Ben will be expecting me home soon."

Daniel, however, started to stare at my face more intently. "What happened to your face?"

I had lost my train of thought again. What if Daniel discovered the truth? It's ironic, that I wanted so much to tell him about his illegitimate son, how much pain I was in, how much I still loved him, yet after I see him again, I don't want to anymore. At least, not yet. I had to lie again.

"Oh, this?" I asked, pointing to the imprint. "This was an accident. My husband was doing some jumping jacks right next to me, and I accidentally stepped into his reach and got hit. It's no big deal, he took care of me, and made sure I was all right."

"Okay." Daniel said nonchalantly.

"Anyway, Daniel," I said. "I have to get back to Ben. But we should get together again sometime, catch up on old times. Can I get your phone number so we can discuss it?" I was asking that in all hopefulness, hoping against all hope that I would just get a chance to at least one day tell him the truth. It hurt me to continue to lie to him.

"I'm in the book." He said. "I have to leave myself, get back to base. My break is going to be over in thirty minutes."

And with that, I saw Daniel turn around and leave the McDonalds. Out of the McDonalds and out of my life once again.

After about half an hour, I was at home again, to be greeted by Andrew giving me a big hug, saying hello to me in that adorable high-pitched squeaky voice of his. I quickly bent down to his level, hugging him back, still trying to get over the fact that I had just met up with his biological father half an hour ago. It was then I noticed that he had Crayola marker residue all over his hands that he had been drawing pictures again. That was one thing that he really liked to do. It also meant that he needed another bath.

"Guess who needs another bath?" I said in a singsong voice.

"Oh, mommy!" Andrew said in mock embarrassment, putting his hands on his hips, pretending to pout. It just made me laugh all the more harder.

"C'mon." I said. "Go to the bathroom, get undressed, and I will draw you a bath, okay?"

"Okay, mommy." Andrew said, as he took off to do so.

I walked into Andrew's room and looked under his bed. Sure enough, there were three new pictures. A couple of them were Transformers related, as I saw a picture he drew of Optimus Prime fighting Megatron, one of himself meeting and shaking hands with Optimus Prime, which was very cute. It was the third one that really tugged at my heartstrings. It was a picture of me, him, and a man who looked like an older version of him, which had to symbolize his real father, Daniel, even though they never physically met, and I had never shown him any pictures of his real father. Andrew only knew that Ben wasn't his real father, and that's all he asked.

I felt my eyes begin to well up, since I knew that was his wish, deep down inside, for the both of us. If there was one thing that Andrew had inherited from Daniel, apart from his handsome looks and excited nature, it was his big heart. He was going to make some lucky woman very happy someday.

"OKAY MOMMY!" I head Andrew call to me from down the hall. "I'M READY FOR BATHTIME!"

I quickly dried my tears and walked to the bathroom, where Andrew was there, naked, ready for his bath.

I drew Andrew's bath, and spent the next few minutes sitting on the toilet, watching him struggle to keep a bar of soap in his grip, and quietly giggling to myself as he did so. All of a sudden, I heard a door slam, and then a voice yell out for me.

"YOU LITTLE FORGETFUL BITCH!" I head Ben yell. "I TOLD YOU TO HAVE DINNER READY BY THE TIME I WOKE UP!"

I had frozen with fear, as I heard his heavy stamping feet coming up the stairs, for me. Ben had stopped at the open door to the bathroom, angry as hell.

"So," he said dangerously. "You thought that your little brat was more important to you than preparing dinner for the bread-winner of this house!"

Normally, I would have cowered before him, begging for his forgiveness, and leaving to fix his dinner for him. I don't know if it was meeting Daniel for the first time in seven years caused me to have a newfound courage to stand up to him.

"You know what?" I said to him with my newfound courage, and not thinking before I said it. "Fix your own dinner. I'm trying to give my son a bath here!" I said that last sentence with conviction.

However, Ben didn't take too kindly to what I said, because he sprang into action. He quickly walked up to me, grabbed me, and plunged my face into Andrew's bath water. I felt the combination of soap and water stinging my eyes as I instinctively held my breath. I heard Andrew's muffled screaming as Ben continued to hold me underwater. It occurred to me that he could kill me right there, right then, that he was trying to drown me. I couldn't hold my breath any longer, and was about to inhale water, when I heard Andrew's muffled voice yell: "LET GO OF MY MOMMY!" and I heard a weird noise, and I felt Ben let go of me, and I came up, coughing, trying to catch my breath.

"NO ONE HITS ME!" I heard Ben yell, enraged. "I'LL RIP YOUR THROAT OUT, YOU LITTLE SHIT!"

I heard Andrew running away, with Ben chasing after him. Acting on instinct, I quickly turned to the toilet and lifted the tank cover from it, taking to the hallway in order to attempt to save my son.

It didn't take long for me to find him, as Ben had cornered him, and I saw one of the worst things I had ever seen in my entire life. Ben had his hands around Andrew's throat, strangling him! My shock quickly turned to anger, as I quickly took to him with the toilet tank cover. "NOT MY SON, YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" I yelled at Ben, as he turned, just in time to receive a sharp blow from the porcelain accessory. He dropped like a rock. I stopped and took a few deep breaths, and looked over to Andrew. His face was still red, and he was so scared, tears were rolling down his face, crying from his near-death experience. I quickly threw my arms around him, and began to cry a little bit myself, relieved that I didn't lose him.

Pretty soon, we both calmed down, as Andrew looked at Ben, lying down on the floor, bleeding.

"Is he dead, mommy?" Andrew asked.

I reached over and put both two of my fingers on the lower part of Ben's neck, just above his shoulder blade. Thankfully, I felt a pulse. I know he had just tried to kill both Andrew and I, but I didn't want to face a possible prison term for manslaughter.

"No." I said. "He's just knocked out."

"I'm scared, mommy." Andrew said to me.

"I'm scared too, sweetie." I said to him. "That's why we're leaving right now. I want you to get your backpack and pack up Optimus and your markers and pictures. I'll get my duffel bag and pack your clothes as well as mine. We're going to stay with Auntie Barbara and Auntie Susan at their place for a while, and then we're going to find a place of our own."

I had called Barbara and Susan ahead to let them know what happened, and they agreed to let me stay for a while. Pretty soon, Andrew and I were in the car, driving to our new temporary home. Barbara and Susan already had the double fold-out bed set up for us, and Susan had set up the TV in her room with a Transformers video to distract him while I talked with her and Barbara. After I told them about the incident with Ben, when he tried to drown me and strangle Andrew, they told me immediately to call the police, especially since he also dealt illegal drugs. I called the police, filled out a report, and then proceeded to tell Barbara and Susan about my little run-in at the McDonalds.

"I ran into Daniel." I confessed.

I filled Barbara and Susan in as I told them about accidentally spilling hot coffee on Daniel, apologizing to him before realizing who he was, how we hugged, how I still loved him, but how I also continued to lie to him about why I left him, and how I still haven't told him that he had a son, and how he told me he was in the phone book.

"You should definitely call him, Ali." Barbara said.

"Yeah." Susan agreed. "Daniel has a right to know about his child. Take Andrew with you to his house, and confess. Tell him how you're sorry that you lied to him, and how you still love him, and never will stop loving him."

"Okay." I said. Barbara gave me their phone book, and I opened it up to the L section. It didn't take me long to find his number and address. I felt my emotions get the better of me as I dialed his number.

I heard the tone sound that told me that Daniel's phone was ringing, and I heard someone pick up.

"Hello?" a voice with a Japanese accent said on the other side. It must have been Mr. Miyagi. He and Daniel must still be good friends after all these years.

"Is Daniel there?" I asked. "This is an old friend of his."

"Okay, I get him." Mr. Miyagi said.

I waited for a few minutes, as I let out a few sniffles. I then heard a voice on the other end of the line.

"Hello?" Daniel's voice asked. I let out a small sob when I heard his sweet voice.

"Hello?" his voice asked again, sounding annoyed. I knew right then, right there, I had to say something.

"Daniel?" I asked. "It's Ali."

"Ali?" he asked. "How did you get my number?"

"Phone book." I explained. "Listen, Daniel, there's something I need to tell you. Do you mind if I come over to tell you what it is? It's very important."

"Sure Ali." He said. "I don't see why not."

"Good, I'll see you there." I said, before hanging up.

I got directions to Daniel's place from Susan, who knew where his address was, but never knew he lived there. Pretty soon, Andrew and I were in the car again, driving to Daniel's house.

"Where are we going, mommy?" Andrew asked.

"We're going to see an old friend of mommy's." I answered. "Someone who I hope can help us out."

I really hope he can help us out.

Author's Notes: Another cliffhanger. I want to thank Sick Twisted Mind and Dracosnogger for reviewing my story. Next chapter, Daniel will meet his illegitimate son for the first time. The only question is, how will he react? Stay tuned, and also keep an eye out for updates to Consequences and The Guardian Devil, as well as a co-written fic with another author coming either in June or July.


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